


I like your lies

by FiveRaysOfSun



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood and Violence, Enemies to Lovers, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Gun Violence, Heavy Angst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Minor Character Death, Murder Mystery, Slow Burn, please don't skip reading any of the tags!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-10-28 04:25:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 30
Words: 120,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17780525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiveRaysOfSun/pseuds/FiveRaysOfSun
Summary: Donghos life was torn to pieces after his fiancé had left him shortly before their wedding, and his childhood friend and future best man, Jonghyun began a relationship with her shortly after, despite his grief.Its been a month since Donghos ex-fiancé had been last seen. Still caring for the woman even after breaking up and unsatisfied with lack of progress made by the police investigators, the man seeks out to find her himself.Jonghyun lives miserably and in regret after moving to live back in his old, gritty home town. He is a shut in, owns money to the wrong people and can’t hold a job. The man is trying to forget about doing what he did to Dongho, even though he never had told him the whole truth of what really happened.Unbeknownst to him, he is the last person who the missing woman had contacted right before her disappearance, making him the missing piece to the puzzle.Out of any other options, Dongho enlists the help of Jonghyun to find the missing woman or what could have happened to her.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> someone might read this

***

 

A clutter of broken window shutters drawn shut veiled Jonghyuns bedroom in black. The place was a mess, empty food packaging on the floor, glass bottles left stuck in the crevice in-between the wall and the bed. He didn’t even care to clean up.

Jonghyun himself slept in, sleeping away his next day yet again in his messy bed hugging a lump of his own undone sheets.

The screen of his phone suddenly sparked a light in the dull room, Jonghyun poked his nose up to reveal a text he had gotten, bottom half of his face hidden pressed under the duvet. His eyes squint trying to read the burning letters across the light screen. He groaned in pain, cursing the person who had to have woken him this early.

The message he had gotten was quite odd, unexpected to say the least. The sender was Kyulkyung, the ex girlfriend of his once childhood best friend, Dongho. The same woman he had thing with himself right after she had dumped her soon to be husband, who was at the time still begging her to reconsider and take him back.

Things just didn’t turn out well in between the two men since that. After all that drama, Jonghyun decided to just return to his hometown and had not heard from his friend who now hated him, for over a year – maybe for the better.

At this point, receiving a text from his ex girl was the one thing Jonghyun would have expected the least. Jonghyun didn’t want anything to do with her anymore, they meant nothing to each other, and now after months of endless self blame, he regretted ever meeting her.

The text read; “Jonghyun, I’ll be arriving in your hometown. See you soon.”

The message was short and eerily formal, with no further kind of explanation. Jonghyun had only been awake for a few minutes and all he could think of right now was how he had no wish to see her.

However, the fact that she wanted to see him did interest him at least a little, because he could not guess what for.

“What do you want from me?” He wrote right back, but after a minute a reply had not come. He decided to just forget about it then and his face fell back into the pillow.

 

A whole month had passed by, and a new season had almost come, a rare colour of green sprouted through the receding snow piles under Jonghyuns apartment window. A wet, rusting metal smell came from outside the window when he left it open for fresh air to refresh the stuffy odour of his own house.

Jonghyun slammed the fridge door shut, the pile of overcrowded sticky notes held on by weak magnets were barely handing anymore.

Intending to watch something on the TV, he returned from the kitchen with his next bottle of beer. Yet there was nothing to see, just an old picture flickering back and forth on his aged cube monitor, muffled discussions of TV show hosts were all boring.

The boy was wearing rags, a knit sweater with loose threads that would tear into holes when pulled, such holes already surrounding his sleeves as well as the brim of his collar. His shorts, were just as crumpled and gone unwashed for as long as they could be, in fear that they could not be worn again if they would shrink even more than the last time after the next wash.

This was one of his lazy days, the ones where he rest instead of actually going back to job hunting, just after losing his last one around a week ago.

His voicemail for employer call-backs was always idle under the mess and garbage littering his coffee table. Nobody had called back yet, but perhaps it was just because this town was too small for him to find a position.

Out of nowhere there was a knock on his apartment door, or more like an angry pound. The lone boy extended his neck to view his door from afar wondering who could it be. Jonghyun was not expecting a visitor, he did not expect anyone at all to come see him these days.

He supposed that it could just be one of those scary debt collectors, but at this point he had no idea what he owed to who anymore.

The guy made himself pull up from his couch. His way of gussying up before meeting the stranger at the door was to shake the food crumbs stuck to the lap and combing his hair over his forehead with only his fingers.

The tall boy arrived at the door, using three different ancient manual locks to undo the hard steel door. Once he opened before he could even get a hard look at the face of the stranger, his own door launched at him, pushing him back as the unknown figure charged him.

Jonghyun didn’t even realize he had to fight back, he kind of just let it happen as he already felt the suffocating hands of a man grip into the collar of his neck, throwing him down to the ground.

The boy was in flight for a split second, it happened too fast for him to process it all, and by the time he realized that he was now in stinging pain, his spine in direct contact with the floor, the attacker was coming at him again.

“Where is she!” A voice yelled at him, angry and hoarse. Jonghyun recognized it almost instantly, how could he miss it.

“Dongho?” He uttered the word of his old friend, his eyes drawing as big as coins seeing the other man after so long, even in a position like this, “What are you doing here?”

The shortest spat at their sweet moment of reunion by raising his voice again. “I said where is she! Answer me damnit.”

Jonghyun stared at that angry face above him, the corners of his eyes tinted red with rage. “Where is who?” He answered calmly, accepting all of Donghos yelling like it did not even affect him.

“Don’t play a fucking fool.” The man was so upset Jonghyun could hear foam forming in Donghos mouth altering his voice. He was acting so different, like some kind of a thug, desperate and willing to hurt.

Jonghyun saw Dongho raise his fist from the far corner of his eye, already braced himself for an impact. In a way he wished that it would just reach him sooner, he felt it was well deserved.

Yet no matter how hard Kang tried to push himself to knock this bastard out till he bleeds from his eyes, he could not raise his hand up against Jonghyun, and he hated himself for it. It made him upset to think that he still had any emotion left for the guy who had ruined his life and taken one thing from him that was dear.

Instead he lifted the head of the guy off from the ground by pulling onto the front of his shirt, his chin pointed upwards, neck weak and unwilling to arch itself straight.

“I said, where is Kyulkyung! Answer me!” He demanded. Jonghyuns eyes changed noticing the name, and Dongho grew anxious when seeing them change.

The tall boy paused to form something on his lips, they were trembling so hard that he physically couldn’t. So only after Dongho had been patiently waiting for Jonghyun to leave the state of shock first, then the guy began to speak with a weak breath.

“Why should I know?” He began to mockingly smirk at his friend. Who’s eyebrows twitched together in anger.

Dongho let go of holding him up, watching the guy hit his head to the floor with a thud. He saw the male as too vile and disgusting to even touch, and now that he was just laughing at him like that, Dongho could barely hold himself from strangling him.

“You think I’m joking? I drove out here all the way as some kind of a jest?” The guy vent watching the other try to roll to his side and instantly push himself up from the fall. “Answer me fucker, where is she?” He yelled again, so hard that the walls made an echo of his voice.

Jonghyun became annoyed at the guy for coming to him to ask, as if he had any clue where that fox had gone. His ex – Kyulkyung, was sly and treacherous, absolutely heartless, not that Jonghyun considered himself any better. Dongho didn’t see that in her, he always viewed her through pink tinted glasses.

In denial, Kang had refused to notice the sudden change of her character, the fact that she loved him one day and suddenly did not the next.

Dongho would never believe him if he told that she was actually that two faced, and her love for the man entirely an act. Even right now, the bastard was still wearing his petty engagement ring as a keepsake.

Jonghyun felt bad for himself. Unlike her, he had always actually loved his friend. Even after he had done a horrible thing, Jonghyun still loved him and, regretted all of his sins, but he didn’t wish to ask for forgiveness, because Jonghyun knew he never deserved that.

“Listen, I haven’t seen her since I left, I swear.” Jonghyun promised his long time friend that he was telling the truth, but Dongho was still left unconvinced, “You lying bastard.” He grunt.

Then Dongho shoved his hand in his pocket, shuffling around in search for something. Jonghyun, who still sat on the floor, grew his eyes wide in horror and anticipation for the other male to pull a some kind of tool of torture out of his coat to force the information out of him one way or another.

Instead he shined a phone in his hand, pressing the display so close to Jonghyuns face that he could barely read the off the screen.

It was a screenshot of a message sent from the woman’s phone to Jonghyun, saying that she’d meet him in his hometown around last month. The tallest had literally forgotten all about it.

Originally, Jonghyun figured that since had never gotten his reply, he had no reason to take it seriously. Although for some reason that was enough to make this jealous jerk chase Jonghyun all the way out here to accuse him all over again.

“I told you, I’ve never met her. She sent me that text, but I never even met her.” He spoke, “Not that I would ever go out to meet her.”

Hearing this made Dongho look defeated, the guy began stomping around the room and trying to make sense of this and Jonghyun tried to make sense of how was he supposed to be involved with her, “What is it?”

“She is missing.” Dongho whined, pressing his hand over his hairline. “Huh?” Jonghyun suddenly straightened his spine, ears sharp. “You were the last person she had texted.” The other explained.

“So if she’s not here with you, then I’ve actially no clue where she’s gone.” Dongho began speaking to himself, his tone of voice frantic and afraid.

“Then why hasn’t police contacted me about it yet?” Jonghyuns eyes became fixed on that phone in the other mans hand.

It was shocking to hear about Kyulkyung actually going missing, she was always a trouble, but she never quite to be the type to run off the grid. Now the guys worry actually sounded almost reasonable.

“The Seoul police can’t do their job.” He made an angry sigh, “She used her old phone number to send you the text, apparently she was always using multiple phones.” Dongho snapped his voice over the rant, sounding like he already had enough of trying to deal with useless cops mishandling her missing persons report.

The guy explained how he had easily broken into his girlfriends old apartment and found it misplaced next to moving boxes. The place did not looked lived in, she had probably moved addresses very recently. And if she did, then of course police would never disclose something like that to her ex.

“Multiple phones, why?” Jonghyun suspected the disappearance was indeed sketchy if that as the case. “I don’t know. The fact that nobody cares and that I found this out all on my own had leads me to think that the whole department is either just lazy or somehow involved.” Kang spoke.

“That’s a bit ridiculous.” Jonghyun mocked Donghos paranoid idea of conspiracy no matter how weird this all was.

“Maybe it is, but I don’t care. If she is in danger, then I need to find her.” Dongho insisted, “She wanted to come here, so this might mean she could be still hiding somewhere in this town.”

This was ridiculous, hiding from who, Jonghyun asked to himself. The tall man stood from the ground himself, turning anxious and away from the man in his room who had just broken in.

Dongho hadn’t moved an inch, he stood in the room like it was his own, with no intention of leaving until he wanted to. The flaming eyes of the male fell on the other, a look of judgement and disgust populated his face when looking down at Jonghyun.

“Is there anything I can do?” Jonghyun asked out of politeness only, he didn’t want to help, he wanted Dongho to just leave him be.

Dongho shot his face away to make a mean grimace under a hand that had now slid down over his mouth. He wanted no help from this prick – but yet, he desperately needed it.

The man was out of options, willing to do anything to find the woman he loved, even if she wouldn’t return that love. Dongho could not sleep knowing that she was helpless and alone.

Jonghyun was somehow the key to the mystery. Before her disappearance, she had suddenly wanted to see the guy, out of nowhere after a year of him leaving Seoul. That meant possibly the guy either had something she wanted or wanted him to have something, whatever it was.

“I need to look around this city and will need a place to stay for that.” Dongho shrugged, already eyeballing the current apartment.

He then took a backpack off his shoulders and tossing it on the floor, it was a camping bag, filled to the brim as if the guy was preparing to climb the mountains to find that woman. According to him, another duffel bag sat in his car outside the building, he promised to get later.

It finally clicked for Jonghyun, at first his static face didn’t react, but then he began to officially freak out. “Dongho, you can’t stay here, this is my house!”

“Think I care? I need a place to stay at for just a few days.” He said like it shouldn’t even bother the other man as much as it bothered himself. Dongho hated to be near Jonghyun, and his filthy place he called home, but if Kyulkyung ever showed up at this door, then he had to be here.

“Then buy a room at a motel.” The other male threw his word out, but Dongho wasn’t type to listen to him anymore. The kind, cheerful guy from his childhood, that he once known, had grown into an incredibly stubborn and bitter adult.

“Nah, this is more affordable for me.” Dongho kicked his feet through the plastic that laid on the floor. Somewhere from underneath all that even came a the sound of a tin can rattling away on the floor, “Your place is a dump, where can I sleep?”

Jonghyun gritted his fists so hard they could tremble. His life was already shit, and seeing Dongho only made it worse. He expressed his anger with silence, his stare becoming dark and scary behind his long fringe.

It didn’t scare Dongho, not even a little bit. “So you gonna tell me where I can rest my feet, or am I going to have to punch it out of you?” The other made a cruel joke that came off rather as a valid threat.

Jonghyun gave up fighting back, his eyes faced the dirty floor of his apartment. “You can have my bed, and I can just go onto the couch.”

Donghos eyes magnetically pointed to the single bed behind the boy on the floor. Jonghyun lived in a single room apartment, one that had no wall separating his only bedroom from his kitchen. So the couch stood in-between as a separator, and doubled as an area for a living room with a TV set up in front.

“Save it. I’m better off sleeping on the couch.” Dongho spoke in disgust, appalled Jonghyun would even suggest that.

Willing to help Jonghyun get back up from being on the floor, Dongho held out his hand and pulled the guy up. Jonghyun had become frail, so easy to lift up as if he had no weight in his bones.

The shortest made sure he did not cause an injury, before shifting his eyes away to not make himself feel guilty for acting way too kind with this evil bastard. Instead, he rushed to dust off said couch, before unpacking his stuff on top of it.

Jonghyun itched behind his neck, still avoidant of making eye contact with the other man, “For how long are you going to stay?”

Dongho shrugged his big shoulders, he had no idea. But he hoped he would be able to return to the capital as soon as possible, preferably with Kyulkyung in hand. Jonghyun bit his lip to hold an insult, at this time it was pointless for him to object.

 

This was their first meal together after a full year, it was spent in an awkward silence at a shabby barbeque place nearby. Low paper lamps hanged from the ceiling by a wire above their heads, casting large circle patterns on the floors of the establishment. The outside of the windows was already dark.

Dongho was doing all the food chewing by himself, angrily eating as if he had not touched food in days. Jonghyun did not have the appetite to eat today, he was still too shocked and busy thinking about meeting Dongho live this, than to think of anything else.

The tallest couldn’t exactly say that he had missed the guy, more like, he had already given up missing him. Jonghyun knew that Dongho would hate him forever, nothing could fix their friendship anymore, so Jonghyun just tried to move on with his life. However, the guy didn’t have the exactly the best life, not like it had really been any better even before this whole mess.

Back then same as now, Jonghyun was in debt, taking loans from the wrong people just to get by, but after him and Dongho had split, the guy had lost all will and reason to stay in Seoul to struggle alone.

Originally, he had made the choice to move back to his hometown far away, it was just cheaper that way. And the people he owed money to could no longer terrorize him this far out. Little did he know that he would be just as miserable anywhere else in the world as he was in Seoul.

After he had left his old life behind, days had crawled by quickly, almost a year had passed, but it felt more like a week. Jonghyun never left his home, becoming isolated from the outside world, never daring to let himself think back and miss those much simpler days he had when he had just met Kang.

The two were friends since they were young, but became somewhat best friends after they had moved to Seoul together, since they both found passion for the same major in university. At least Dongho had finished it, as nowadays Jonghyun no longer had the wish, nor the money for it.

Kyulkyung stepped into their lives unexpectedly, out of nowhere she popped up and became the third best friend. She had her eyes on Dongho from the start, but the guy was slow to make his confession to her.

Her and Dongho were perfect together, they matched well and Jonghyun was proud of his friends. But then one day they fought, so bad that both of them called it all off, their wedding, their relationship, they were over for good.

Kyulkyung met up with Jonghyun later that week, she spoke to him as his friend wanting to meet up and ask for advice. However, that day she wore a different face, when met in person she spoke and acted like a person Jonghyun didn’t know. Kyulkyung made herself sound like she had never even loved Dongho in the first place, speaking behind his back.

The rest of that story becomes a blur, he only remembered drinking too much that night. Although what happened after that, is was what had made Dongho lose his mind.

Jonghyun snapped out of his thought after hearing Dongho in a loud conversation with himself, he had been speaking for a small while, mouth full and eyes locked on food.

“Makes no sense she would just run off and disappear somewhere, right?” He spoke while chewing. Jonghyun had no clue if the question was even directed at him, but he still shook his head.

“She got into her vehicle to here right after sending that text, her car had been recorded crossing onto highways that would lead to here.” Dongho thought out loud.

“And so far nothing new has come up yet?” Jonghyun raised his eyebrow in suspicion, it truly was a curious case, too big for his mind.

Dongho shrugged noticing Jonghyuns interest, “No one had reported her missing for quite a long time. She never spoke to people, nobody kept tabs on her to notice.”

Jonghyun finally gained attention of Donghos glance with his next words, “She was always very secretive.” The other man made a mean grimace at him. He hated whatever Jonghyun was trying to insinuate by that.

Dongho decided to ignore him and continue to speak with the same vigour, “Before this, she had stopped going out in public, and apparently had traces of some weird transactions made from her accounts.”

Jonghyun watched the lines on his friends forehead crowd, “Weird transactions?” He asked in a little nervous voice.

“I don’t know. The police told me not to get involved and just let them do their job.” Dongho suddenly hissed, putting his eating utensils down.

“But no matter what, she’s still missing.” He reached for the tissue to mark the end of his meal and signify that he was going back home. Jonghyun was forced to be dragged along with him for now.

 

Stuck in this predicament, Jonghyun didn’t feel fine, he didn’t feel fine at all after seeing Dongho face to face again after a year, but the jerk was staying inside his house now. No matter what he couldn’t show it, Jonghyun thought that his old friend would be disgusted by such emotions from him.

Before the end of that same night, he had left his house to sit outside on the dirtied steps of the apartment to think, he needed to think a lot to calm himself down. Jonghyun faced down to stare in-between his torn sneakers.

Cigarette butts were spread across the stairs, missing the ashtray some neighbour had left out here. The hallway smelled of rot, and the paint on the walls was crumbling away as if all the walls themselves were made of chalk underneath.

An hour had passed, perhaps more. Jonghyun returned indoors after excusing himself for a walk, not that Kang actually cared where he went.

The gloomy boy found his guest leaning outside the window for a smoke. Jonghyun thought, great – another person in the apartment that smokes.

But it was odd, Dongho had never smoked before, or at least he didn’t while Jonghyun and him were still friends. If this is how much Dongho had changed since, then it broke his friends heart to see his old friend huff that smoke of poison. Jonghyun still blamed himself for everything.

Dongho had heard him enter, lock the door three times and leave to bed without a word. He didn’t throw a glance at him, ignoring the man.

Instead he oversaw the town, even though there was way less to see now after the sun had hid behind the great mountainside. The windows of small buildings below still burned with light, lanterns on the street cast yellow blinking light across the empty streets that guided odd old cars.

Kyulkyung had to be out there somewhere, so even if he had to comb the entire place out by himself, he would. Dongho swore to find out what happened to that girl on her way to Jonghyun. There was no way she could have just run off for no reason, let alone come this far out from her city.


	2. Chapter 2

Together Dongho and Jonghyun walked through grocery store isles, talking to one another through the gaps of the store shelf standing in between them, in a way that served as a wall to stop them from throwing themselves at one another for a fight. Only mean stares and each insults could get through.

“Why the hell do we need this much food?” Jonghyun angrily insisted at the other. “It’s for me not you idiot, and If you haven’t noticed your freezer has been unplugged, judging by the smell, for quite some time.” Dongho shot back.

Jonghyun wanted to roll his eyes the petty insults, but Dongho still had some more, “How can you live in such a shithole? Might as well grab some bug spray for whatever mold drawn insects you keep in your bed.”

Jonghyun ignored the second part, “So are you going to cook now? Don’t remember you being too great at that.” He spat back.

Dongho growled under his breath, he had been living on his own for a year now, Kang had gotten way better at that so Jonghyun had no right to say this. Somehow Dongho had gotten heated about insults over his cooking more than anything else Jonghyun had said to him today.

The two had walked to the other end of the isle while busy arguing, rounding the corner Jonghyun saw what Dongho had been holding out of sight, a giant bag of spicy cheese balls.

“What is it?” Dongho asked, offended by the other mans stare. Just then he realized that his friend was holding the same exact thing.

Appalled, Dongho took Jonghyuns bag out of his hands and misplaced it back in the shelf, placing his own into the cart as if his was somehow better purely just because he had been the one to pick it.

 

The only way to shut the strange guest out was by sleeping, it was the only way Jonghyun could avoid him and his constant whining in a single room apartment. Although maybe it was safer to sleep with eyes open at night while the bastard was in here with him, or else Jonghyun might as well end up waking up with his skull open instead, he thought.

Each time the tallest hoped that once he would wake up the other man would not be there, that he wouldn’t be sitting four steps away from his bed, Dongho was always still there.

Jonghyuns tired eyes squint in the dark, all they saw was Donghos stern face illuminated by the light of his phone. For long minutes he was already glued to it, perhaps he had been for hours before Jonghyun had woken up. Has this jerk even slept at all? Jonghyun theorized.

The shortest flinched to the sound of Jonghyuns feet moving from out the sheets and slapping bare on the floor. He had ignored the mans presence for do long, that he had forgotten the guy was even here.

He greeted the other with the same old silence, a quick glance of disgust was all that Dongho would spare the house owner. Jonghyun didn’t feel like saying anything back either, he was still looking for excuses to force Dongho out of his house, although much preferably his life.

“Don’t try to run off.” Dongho warned the other just as the boy had gotten out of his bed, “I’m heading out in a bit, and you are coming with me. Get dressed.” Dongho shot his mean mug back up to look.

St least he had been kind enough to let Jonghyun sleep till now, Dongho thought about himself, because judging by those giant rings of gray around his droopy eyelids, the guy looked like he could really make good use of a nap.

Jonghyun stumbled his step, trying to figure out if Dongho was really talking to him or not. At least there wasn’t anyone else in the room, so it had to be him.

“Don’t fucking stare at me like that, you are the only one who actually knows this forsaken town.” Dongho explained, still not softening his tone to the other man. 

It was like the guy did not care and just treated Jonghyun as if he was purely an object. Making Jonghyun hate himself for allowing himself to be treated like one just to aid this guys search for his little run away girlfriend.

This is where the other finally decided to speak up against him, “Kang, I have nothing to do with this. I don’t want to.” He added, “You should get out of my house after today too, I can only tolerate you being here for this long.”

The other clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes so far back he had to tilt his head. He was agitated by the fact Jonghyun would not help to make this any easier for him. 

“Why, is it difficult for you? It’s not like you got tons of other things to do while you sit in your shitty apartment and mope all day.” Dongho shot at him, shocking the other, “You don’t need to be anywhere, I can tell you are unemployed.”

Kang scanned the miserable looking man, wearing clothing crumpled and dirtied, like he had not washed it for weeks. His house not only looked, but smelled awful. Reused plastic dishes stacked by the sink, as the awful bastard could not even bother to go out and buy new ones.

This guy doesn’t work, can barely cook for himself or even shower properly, and he lives without a computer. What does he do all day anyway, Dongho thought to himself.

When they were just kids, that guy used to love to spend countless hours at the internet cafe playing video games, they’d always pitch in and go together. Even in his early twenties, his most prized possession was his own gaming computer that he had busted his ass just to save up for. The guy used to be a total video game geek back then, a proper loser. Somehow he had gotten even worse.

What did Kyulkyung ever see in him that was better than Dongho, why’d she dump him and then run straight into the arms of the other.

The guy had probably sold off his computers, much like all of his other expensive shit just to pay off the loans he had borrowed from thugs. It looked like Jonghyun had gotten rid of his little teenage hobby for good.

Jonghyun shot his sad eyes to the floor, avoiding judgement. He usually had stopped caring about others peoples opinions, but Kangs still pierced him. “Dongho, I can’t be there to help you with this. I’ve work to find, bills to pay.”

Dongho cruelly laughed, “Sure, what bills? Gambling, paying back your next loan?” 

A nasty know it all smirk began to grow on his face, when he noticed Jonghyuns eyes glimmer to the mention of cash, “I’ll pay.” He teased.

Jonghyun shrugged setting himself straight, “I don’t need your money.”

“Don’t play the self righteous type. I know what you are.” The short man snort, getting up to take a scary step towards the other. Jonghyun wasn’t afraid, there was nothing he feared anymore. 

Instead Jonghyun stepped one step closer himself, coming close to bumping chests with his rival, “You are right. But I still don’t need your fucking money, so screw off. “

Dongho became ticked off by this jerk, grabbing him into his sleeve and physically dragging him towards the closet near his bed. Jonghyun almost tripped, barely catching his heels in the right angle not to fall into the doors of his closet.

The guy was too weak, it felt like grabbing onto just the bone of his arm alone when Dongho had held him for a second. It made him feel even more dirty by touching him.

“Get dressed quickly, I don’t want to sit outside in the cold for long.” He shrugged, wiping his hand where he had previously grabbed the other.

 

The weather was shitty these days, no rain nor snow. Just cold and mud. The grass hills had yellowed in the spots where snow had crawled back, weeds and bush combed in all directions pressed low to the ground where the ice had been.

From Jonghyuns house to Donghos car it was all puddles one deeper than the other. It didn’t even feel like five steps before Kim felt something soak through his boot. He stood ready in front of the other, hands stuffed in his pockets, a hood drooping over his own eyes.

Dongho snort, his nose secretly twitched under his palm in disgust, but his words weren’t so shy, “Are you seriously not going to shower first?”

Jonghyun looked down at his own outfit, he didn’t think the other would notice, let alone hardly care. “But I—” The man had thought they were in a rush, so he had not changed.

Dongho waved his wrist, inviting Jonghyun to sit into his high jeep anyway. “Forget about it, we can’t lose more time”. The pair were then quickly on the road.

Jonghyun had no clue where this bastard was taking him until he put up a map on his GPS showing all the nearby motels and guesthouses. Donghos plan was to check and see if any of them had seen the woman with her description. 

If this guy was really planning on going from door to door like this, then why did he even need to drag Jonghyun out here, the tall male pout in car.

Jonghyun and Dongho met their eyes before entering one such motel, looking like two partners in crime. A wind chime hanging at the door had warned the receptionist of their arrival and they began to greet them by sitting up from across the counter. 

The two stood empty handed before the motel receptionist, standing suspiciously silent and thinking of words to say. “How can I help you?” The middle aged woman with rosy cheeks squint at the two, they didn’t really look like the type to wish to get a room together.

“I am looking for someone, want to know if she has been staying here?” Dongho inquired, but the woman would not budge unless he was a cop.

“And you are?” She asked the man speaking. “Her fiancé.” Dongho held up his hand that held his engagement ring as proof. Jonghyun stared with despise from the corner of his eye.

The woman was somehow easily convinced by that, pulling out an old fashioned handwritten notebook where she kept the names of all guests, no digitalized records, it was a small town after all.

Dongho pronounced the name of the missing person, and the time she could have been present. But nothing turned up. Or at least nothing under her real name.

Dongho supposed she had paid in cash, and that is why Police had not come this far in their search. Perhaps if she was actually on the run for some reason, then she might have had used a fake name, but that would be weird.

They continued the search, but no single female in her twenties had been noticed in any of the hotels near the area, and none of these shabby places even had cameras to confirm it. Dongho concluded to Jonghyun that if she had done all of this just to avoid being seen, then she had obviously succeeded.

By the time they had left their around fifth location, the skies had darkened. Only a small light creeped from behind the high hills, slowly fading away under the dark forest landscape.

The two were hanging around on the street freezing and stressed as there were less and less places in this town one woman could hide at.

“What on earth chased her all the way out here?” Dongho looked down on this place, a gritty and aging town with no redeeming qualities other than it being silent enough for a person to hide away without a trace.

“Probably pissed off some other gullible dude after making a fool out of him and running off.” Jonghyun snort, sounding all proud and snarky.

Dongho gritted his teeth and decided to zone him out, he knew Kyulkyung wasn’t anything like that, Jonghyun was just full of shit.

Pissed off with the world, Dongho figured while him and the other where still standing out under the open skies, he might as well catch a smoke, as something to distract himself for a minute.

The flame lit inside of his hand, and he paid no attention to the boy with the blank expression on his face. Therefore, he had the least expected for the jackass to just randomly punch him.

A hard punch made Donghos head snap to the side, and his feet almost slip on the ice, he barely caught himself before falling. Eyes red like a raging bull, pointing at Jonghyun in blame for the attack.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” He yelled, holding onto his jaw, while his cig had flown somewhere on the ground.

“Don’t smoke around me.” Jonghyun mocked him, disgusted and disappointed in him for doing so. But Kang did not give a fuck, Jonghyun had no right to play like this.

“You fucker.” Dongho growled, fingers itching to strangle that cursed bastard. But it looked like Jonghyun had already been hurt after injuring his own damn hand from the swing, the guy always threw a weak punches.

Jonghyun suddenly uttered to himself, “I’m heading back.” He began leaving without even giving the other man his glance.

“Hey, wait you asshole!” Dongho yelled from behind him, but the guy didn’t want to hear it.

The jerk was being spiteful and with an attitude, it made Dongho livid. Jonghyun was acting like a spoiled brat when he shouldn’t, if anything he was lucky Dongho had not come to his house just to level the place to the ground in rage.

 

Dongho returned home late. He now used Jonghyuns spare keys to enter and leave as he pleased, unlocking the loud rusty locks to get in without any regard to not waking up the sleeping lump of a body hidden deep under a thick sheet of Jonghyuns bed. 

The guy was a sad sight. Still half eaten cup of noodles was freezing to cold beside his bed, the eating utensils laying dirty right down on the table, and also the time on the clock was not even that late for him to be sleeping already. But Dongho didn’t feel bad, Jonghyun was too petty for him to anyways. 

However one thing he really couldn’t stand was the mess in this place, even if it was not his property. Out of a habit or just for distraction, instead of sleeping the man began to clean up. That other jerk shouldn’t think of this as some kind of a caring gesture later, Dongho hoped, he was only doing this just because he was using this place to sleep.

His rummaging and digging wasn’t at all quiet or gentle on the sleeping mans ears. Being a light sleeper he woke up, first thing that came to his mind was to assume that the noise was some kind of an emergency.

“You find anything?” He rushed to push himself up to his elbows. “Not yet, so don’t waste your breath.” Dongho shrugged.

Jonghyun dropped back into his pillow, hiding as much of himself as possible under the thick of the duvet as his only escape from being in the same room with the other man he despised. Dongho continued to touch his stuff and move objects from place to place. But Jonghyun really just wanted to sleep, so that this could be over.

Something caught Donghos eye, his hand reached to grab it, but it had been placed too close to where Jonghyun laid his head in the bed, so he couldn’t near it. A huge stuffed bear sulked next to Jonghyuns turned away head.

“You still have that bear.” Dongho commented, meeting eyes with the sad toy.

“Bear?” Jonghyun rubbed his tired eye, trying to find the spot that the other man was looking at. The guy probably didn’t know about where it had even come from, apart from the fact that he just always had it. 

For the other man however, it held little meaning, but it was weird seeing it again. Dongho had never hoped to find it here still with him. 

After the breakup with his fiancé, Dongho had told his best friend that he would try to make it right again, beg her forgiveness for whatever he had done wrong and ask her to take him back so they could try to be together again. Jonghyun had even cheered him on, told him to be as brave as always and with no doubt she would accept him back.

But then when Dongho found out his ex and Jonghyun had been meeting behind his back already, for who knows how long after them breaking up. Jonghyun didn’t even try to object to it or clarify. He just outright admitted it, as if he had no remorse, so he never even said sorry. Back then, Kang didn’t know which one of them had broken his heart more.

The tall male had said such ugly things to him, ones the Jonghyun he had grown to know would never say. He said to him it was all fair, his fiancé had told him it was over and was free to date whoever she wanted, even if it was a mutual friend. Dongho was framed as the clingy and obsessive one by him.

The only time Dongho heard again from Jonghyun, was when the bastard was moving away. The guy was giving him his old stuff back, DVDs and video game sets, because apparently it felt wrong for him to keep.

Dongho could care less to retrieve such useless items, but he still went to see him, or more like, it was his feet that took him to his old friend against his own will. That day Jonghyun had actually sounded so devastated over the phone, so maybe by then he was starting to regret it.

Yet no amount of regret or wish for forgiveness could make up for what Kang felt back then. Dongho had decided that if Jonghyun ever wanted to apologize, he’d probably just spit in his face, laugh or say a cruel thing about wishing him a horrible life.

When Kang made it to meet him at his temporary room for the one last time, in the doorway to the building he bumped shoulders with some odd looking thugs. He had seen these guys before, loan sharks.

The group of males fled from the scene upon seeing him, alarming Dongho that they had probably done something with Jonghyun that could earn them trouble. It didn’t surprise him however, the bastard was always on thin ice by stealing money from shady men, and it finally came to bite him in the ass right before he even had the chance to flee the city.

Dongho rolled his eyes and let out a sarcastic laugh, before stomping his step to see into the unlocked apartment door of Kim.

The boy laid on the floor surrounded by said DVDs and game CDs, all broken and smashed to pieces across the ground. While Jonghyun was beat and seizing on the ground in the middle of it all without a sound.

Dongho froze standing above his friend, he wasn’t shocked or scared. Instead he strangely enough felt little for the man, in that moment seeing the guy squirm on the floor only mere minutes from possibly dying, Dongho had absolutely no empathy left for him. It felt deserved.

He sighed, pulling out his phone almost like he was only just obligated to in order to not get himself in trouble for it. He didn’t even squat to observe the body too well, watching from a distance as it seemed too vile to touch.

He spoke to the dispatcher, “Yeah, I have a beaten up guy over here.” He tilted his head to the side to watch, as Jonghyun struggled to crawl towards him, not realizing the extent of his injury.

“I can’t move him, he’s spilled his guts on the ground.” Dongho spoke without a care, staring right into the terrified eyes of Jonghyun, who could hardly breathe from the pain, let alone form a word.

There was something wrong with his ribs, they were crushing his chest so hard he could not find himself breathing. Each inhale was sharp and burned, and many seemed not even get through at all. But even when Dongho saw him like that, he did nothing to help him, aside from follow the operators instruction. There was no care in his eyes, no soothing words to calm him.

The shortest didn’t want to sit in the ambulance with him, but it appeared he had to. The first response rushed him and the other into a crammed elevator onto the stretchers, squeezing Dongho in-between the wall and the head of the stretcher.

Jonghyun suddenly woke up from his short blackout, the whites of his eyes wide with red and throat wanting to choke. A cough forming inside of the depths of his lungs had been so intense, that in a blink of a second he was awake, chest leaping up into the air.

Dongho hissed after Jonghyun had turned right at him to cough up blood. It splattered everywhere, stray red drops landing far on Donghos face and the walls of the elevator. 

Dongho left as soon as he could, not wanting to take any responsibility for the guy, despite the fact that he had no one else in Seoul, but his best friend Dongho. The shortest was already done with him.

After getting home and washing up, Dongho was still not feeling a darn thing. All that bothered him was the fact that Jonghyuns blood had touched his skin, the color of deep dark red had made it look like he owned freckles in the mirror. 

He scrubbed and peeled at his face wanting not only to wash it off, but punish his very own skin for becoming dirty from someone he hated so much.

That night there was a phone call, Dongho rushed to his phone seeing who it was hoping it was Kyulkyung, his fiancé who would change her mind to return to him.

He only read the first character of the caller before instantly picking up, Dongho could not believe it was actually her on the line, “Kyulkyung!”

“Dongho.” He heard her cry, her voice soft and mixed in with repeating sniffles. “Jonghyun is—” Her voice stopped, the next line was something neither of them had wanted to hear.

“Jonghyun is dead.” The woman began to sob on the line after her own words. While Dongho froze in disbelief with the cell stuck to his ear. Suddenly whatever feeling was left for his best friend deep inside of Donghos heart was beginning to break out.

“No, he can’t be. I was just there next to him.” He spoke in denial, heart racing fast in his chest as if it was to jump out of his throat. 

Kyulkyung couldn’t answer him, she tried to, but her sobs were too overwhelming and she quickly hanged up.

Without second thought, Dongho ran out of his own house to see the man with his own two eyes. He couldn’t be dead, there was no way. On his way there he became more and more desperate, thinking what if. What if Jonghyun was really dead, what would he do then.

The guy ran into the hospital, almost jumping himself at the receptionist to tell him where they have taken his friend. The woman made a call and then told the raging man that Jonghyun should still be in his room.

Dongho ran all the way up to the said room just to find him. And when he broke through the door his feet finally stopped at the bed, chest losing all its weight.

Jonghyun was still alive, sleeping soundly in intensive care. Dongho cursed at himself for falling for the lie, he had no idea why Kyulkyung would have lied. But at least he was just glad that it wasn’t true.

After catching his breath, turned around to simply leave, because what else was left for him to do there, but his heart told him to glance back, and by doing so he fell into pity.

The guy was knocked out by whatever drugs had been fed to him, hooked up to all kinds of tubes and other scary things going into his body just to keep him alive for the night, including an oxygen mask that now cupped his face.

Jonghyun had no family living in Seoul, no one here to visit him or even pick him up once he is out, and judging by all the equipment in the room, none of this wasn’t going to be cheap. The guy would never be able to afford to pay all if this off.

Dongho didn’t wish to stay with him, he still despised the guy, but also abandoning him felt too cruel. The guy left the room to find a claw machine of children’s toys he had seen on one of the lower floors of the hospital.

He sat at it for long and emptied his pockets of all forms of coin just to get that giant brown bear, that he then sat in a chair facing Jonghyuns sick bed to protect him for the night. After that Dongho left to never see him again. 

 

“What about it?” Jonghyun stared back and forth from Dongho to his pet bear, it wasn’t too significant to him since he had no idea how he even got it. It was just a thing that he hugged to sleep.

“Nothing, just sleep already.” Dongho groaned, removing his sights to arrange a bed of his own for the next night.


	3. Chapter 3

The rusting rooftops carried the weight of the still meting snow as rare snowfalls would occasionally still torment the sad town. The wet streets pooled with mud and rain mixed together leaving splatter patterns on building walls that hugged too tight to the towns streets.

The number of days before the spring were short, but somehow it felt nowhere near. The skies were painted in the same dull colour of plain grey from morning to dawn, and it seemed like months since the sun had shown itself past the thick of those gloomy clouds.

Dongho brought his newly lit cigarette to his dried and purple lips. The mans wrists hidden deep under warm sleeves.

He saw the town from his tired eyes, it seemed so small and boring, only populated with passing faces of aged men that looked so bitter and hateful, cars that rattled when passing him on the street.

This place felt like it was on the edge of the world for him, but it was also the last sanctuary for the woman he could not let go. Perhaps she was out there still, waiting for him to find her, he clung to that hope.

It was slowly getting hard to find strength to continue looking for his ex, without a day of rest he had been running blindly just trying to find a single clue on her whereabouts. And of course he didn’t trust Jonghyun to go out and search for the woman on his own instead, the thought of those two meeting again made his stomach churn, and it made him wish to hate her too.

After a mundane morning, Dongho had later forced the other man outside again, leaving him outside a grocery store for a bit to quickly grab a refill for his pack of smokes. Stubborn, Jonghyun waited outside even if it was cold, he was not going to let Dongho drag him around like some kind of a lap dog.

The guy became busy stomping in the snow trying to keep warm, and Dongho averted his eyes from him for just a second to like always Dongho ask the shop keeper if he had seen the woman before paying, and like always no one had a clue.

He turned around again to still see Jonghyun standing outdoors, yet this time it looked like he was being bullied out there by some town hoodlums. They mocked the man who now looked away on the ground, punching their thumb into his forehead to tease him.

Dongho could predict what this was about way before he had even stepped outside to hear the conversation. Loan sharks, Jonghyun had apparently not paid up.

Once upon a time, Dongho was used to be so squeamish, he had always been scared of meeting big thugs like this before back when him and Jonghyun had to borrow to make ends meet in the capital, but now he could approached these guys confidently.

“Hey, quit it.” He basically called out to the others to stop touching what belonged to him, and the well being of Jonghyun didn’t actually matter much.

The much older, weathered men with craggy features turned around to face him, necks hunched forwards, lips chewing on something. “What your deal, kid?” The mans voice sounded annoying already.

Dongho sighed, not really wanting to deal with thugs, “He not pay you back in time?” The guy guessed and the eyes of the men went big like rounded coins.

“Ya’ gonna pay his loan or something?” They asked to which he snort. “Nah, this bastard owes me some things too.”

“Just wanted to let you guys know that I’ll not let any of you beat the shit out of him before I do.” He glanced at the guy in question, quivering like a leaf, eyes shot down.

Strangely enough, the thugs felt like leaving him alone for now. Most of the insults and threats about window smashing and finger breaking had already been made before Dongho had arrived. So with spoiled looks and more silent curses they left the scene to threaten him another day.

Jonghyun stood there, ashamed and scared. Seriously, if Dongho had not shown up right there, then those guy would probably have at least given him a punch or something.

“You crazy punk, why did you get involved with loan sharks again? Can’t make money on your own?” Dongho scolded him.

“How can I? The town is too small and I’ve already gotten fired from places too many.” Jonghyun complained, reminding Dongho he had never even finished his studies to take a good job. The guy was literally tied to this shit hole of a town.

Dongho reviewed the guys lowered head, “What do they fire you for? Don’t come to work too often?” A mocking voice rolled out over dried, cracked lips.

It wasn’t hard to detect that Jonghyun was unmotivated, so unfit that he was constantly too tired to even leave his bed. Without wanting to admit this to Dongho outright, he decided not to talk back anymore.

 

Jonghyun headed back home only after finishing some other unnamed business, or more of an an excuse he had made just to not be locked up in a room with that jerk anymore.

He climbed up the steps of his worn down apartment staircase to get back, and when he met Dongho walking down the same steps to have his countless smoke, the two almost purposely bumped shoulders out spite.

The smell of burnt cigarettes on the other man was the worst thing ever, and just by inhaling it once Jonghyun felt like his own chest was in pain, as if he was the one to put that poison to his lips. He decided to shower as soon as he gets to apartment to get away from it. The inside of his chest was starting to hurt again awful a lot these days already.

Jonghyun turned the corner to climb the next flight of stairs and barely dodged going head first into a suddenly open apartment door of one of his neighbors. An old woman lived right under Jonghyun, alone with her noisy small dog.

“Ah, I’m sorry ma’am.” Jonghyun apologized for almost toppling the poor elder over.

She was weak and frail, skin ill pale and back hunched over. Nowadays she even used a cane, which she came to use only recently as her health had worsened.

The man from upstairs was always apologetic to her, he was a noisy neighbour and caused a lot of trouble. Once he had even left the bath running, raining down water on her and leaving the whole building without electricity.

She spoke with a soft voice, “Oh, don’t worry Jonghyun.” The elder tried to shift her feet past the tall man to look down the staircase, her heels never quite left the ground as she walked.

She looked down with a suspicious stare, “Who is that man Jonghyun, I keep seeing him around?” Figures, she must of mistaken Dongho for a robber.

“That is my—friend, he is visiting.” Jonghyun cupped the back of his neck with his palm, trying to find the right words to explain to the woman.

She nodded in understanding and told him to be careful around the guy, she didn’t trust strangers, let alone outsiders not from around the town. But this guy in particular she didn’t like, maybe it was just because he had been carelessly smoking right under her window.

 

Jonghyun had just left the shower right before Dongho had come back up from his extended smoke, or whatever he had been busy doing.

Wanting to ignore the guy and not greet, Jonghyun belueved that his spitefulness would soon finally piss the arrogant Dongho off enough for him to leave, for his own sake. Seeing the man from day to day again like back when they were friends again hurt, because for some damned reason Jonghyun still missed the guy like stupid.

Dongho wasn’t the same anymore. Not after Jonghyun had broken his heart and ruined him. It felt like there was a ghost in his house, wearing his best friends face and his name. His presence here was absolutely paralyzing, this was far worse than being alone.

As Dongho stepped in, he heard a quiet hum of running water in the background. Then he came to catching a glance at Jonghyuns tired face looking at itself in the bathroom mirror above a sink, and for a second he got confused too.

His brain yelled for him to greet his friend, but his lips would not form to say hi. That man over there was not his friend anymore, it was a husk of someone he once knew. Dongho scratched the back of his head and looked to the floor trying to erase it from his mind.

 

At another time, Dongho sat legs crossed on the couch again addicted to the screen of his laptop. A bottle of half emptied beer sat by his side, he so occasionally lifted to his lips only to put it aside again without it ever touching his dry lips, whenever finding something online he could write down.

In the small one room apartment room Jonghyun had nothing else of worth to do other than to try to small talk with Dongho to eliminate himself from feeling awkward.

“Have you found any useful information yet?” Jonghyun pretended he cared.

Dongho raised his chin, he didn’t expect for Jonghyun to be the one to give a shit about Kyulkyung, and he was spot on right about that.

The shortest snort, “No.” He continued to stare at the other in defeat. A lazy arm of his reaching to smack the can of beer to his mouth already.

“Why don’t you check out the roads outside of town?” Jonghyun randomly suggested. “The roads?” Dongho didn’t know his reasons why yet.

There are a lot of creaks and creaks, my idea is that if she was indeed rushing to get here, she could have perhaps rolled off the icy, unlit roads.” Jonghyun worded one of his many guesses, but Dongho became angry with him for suggesting that she had to be dead.

He flashed his teeth, “What are you trying to imply asshole?” He barked at the other, almost ready to throw himself at the bastard.

“There’s no leads for you here. If she was here then her vehicle would had been found abandoned somewhere by now. There aren’t a lot of cars on these roads anyways.” Jonghyun explained, pointing out how it would be hard to hide a whole car without access to a garage.

“Then don’t just say that she is dead you prick!” Dongho yelled at him so hard it actually frightened the tallest.

Right then something hard welled up in Jonghyuns throat. He didn’t mean to put it in that way, he didn’t mean to hurt Dongho again. His chest burned for a bit, a sudden urge to cough came and he instinctively covered his mouth with his hand.

Dongho paused his anger to see his friend choke up actual blood right into his palm, his eyebrows drooped low from being angry. “You alright?” He asked casually, as if there was nothing wrong with it other than it being gross.

“Yeah.” Jonghyun acted the same, not trying to raise Donghos alert in any way. He never wished for the other man to worry for him.

Gradually Dongho started to actually understand the seriousness of the situation, it wasn’t just a speckle of blood, it was almost a teaspoon. “You are sick.” He spoke softly, showing a drastic change in character, this was more like him.

“It just happens every once in a while. I’ve seen the doctor about it already.” Jonghyun shrugged it off like it was nothing. “How bad is it?” Dongho spoke.

The other didn’t really want to talk about it, or even think about it, “I have to take medicine to make it go away.”

As small signs of worry began to show on Donghos static face, he had suddenly remembered something important. Exactly a year ago Jonghyun had gotten in that accident that had left him in hospital hooked up to an oxygen tank. So now Dongho became grimly aware that the guy had never recovered fully after all, and now there was guilt in him. He thought, perhaps if only he had made to the mans house faster and stopped those loan sharks from doing this to him, the guy would be okay.

However, Dongho had grown conflicted now. This whole time he had believed that accident had served Jonghyun right. He had somehow convinced himself that he deserved it, to not worry for him.

“Hey, you are gonna still be fine, right?” The short male prepared to leave his comfortable seat to go up to Jonghyun and help him sit, but Jonghyun wasn’t that weak, he got into his own bed just fine.

“Yeah.” The tallest ignored him and rummaged through his drawers to quickly find some tissues on his own. Dongho stopped to stand, seeing that his help was unwanted.

 

Lush forests and high hills surrounded the area, sure it was easy to get off track or take a wrong off-road turn. Kang didn’t want to think about the idea of her getting lost, rather he hoped that she had simply just ditched the car after it broke down.

Jonghyun considered that in case she was trying to cover-up some kind of a crime, she could have driven out here to hide it. However to hide a whole car out in the woods so well that no one would notice it for a month, what for? Unless Kyulkyung had actually been involved in some big, sketchy business, there was no reason for her to do something as drastic as like this.

The jeep slowed down reaching a secluded road that lead out of the town, one of many that one way or another all eventually lead back to Seoul. Kyulkyung had to drive down at least one of these, Dongho trusted in Jonghyuns theory.

The guy had been on a look out for any cameras or houses that could be facing the exit roads, but nothing of sorts existed in this forsaken village.

The dry leaves crunched under Jonghyuns feet, he was walking down a steep slope from the road not sure looking what for exactly. Donghos scared gut feeling had told him to look for ravines and hidden cliffs by the road, anything that could’ve steered the car off the icy road during winter.

But Donghos gut feeling wasn’t always the greatest, they walked back and forth a great distance, but found nothing of sorts. The mountainsides were filled with such low maintained roads, that probably had nothing to look at just like this one.

A stream ran through the cliffs nearby, its roar could be heard from afar. She couldn’t have gotten any further than that on foot, let alone a vehicle, so once reaching it and stopping to look at it for a moment, the two headed back.

They sat back into the somewhat warm cushions of the car, Dongho took out a paper map he had bought and with a ball pen on hand, angrily crossed out the said spot off the map.

Dongho planned gradually going inwards, closer and closer towards the inner half of the town if needed, comb every little place and crevice to find that one missing car. Even though this should be the job for the police, not him.

The row looming trees hugging the road from both sides became thin and spread out, until such trees became even rare once they neared closer back into town. Jonghyun averted his eyes from the gloomy scenery to peek at Dongho in secret.

Kang was obsessed over a woman that did not even love him back, Jonghyun wished his friend had loved him instead. They were both just desperate, Dongho to find her safe, and Jonghyun to find her so that Dongho would leave him once more.

“Sorry.” Jonghyun felt useless for wasting Donghos time today, but Dongho didn’t feel the same, at least he was relieved he had not found her down in a bottom of that pit.

“No, you were right.” Dongho had miraculously agreed, “She traveled to here by car, it had been caught on highway cameras. So she had to have stopped somewhere.” He spoke while looking forwards, determined to find her to his last breathing second.

“Even if I have to comb every exit road in town, I will find her.” Dongho swore.

“Good luck.” Jonghyun spoke under his uneven breath feeling sorry for the both of them. Dongho ignored him.

Jonghyun closed his eyes in the car and let Dongho take him home. The night came in quickly and the quiet road had gone fully silent, the two rode slowly, recognizing how scary it would be to drive through an area without any signs or lights to guide the way back into town leading out from that forest.

It was too dangerous to seek out other roads at this time, when their car would roll off a cliff and meet the same fate as Kyulkyung. No, she wasn’t dead, she simply couldn’t die, neither of them could believe it.

But if she was this well hidden, then what exactly was she hiding from.

 

Sometime after that, Jonghyun had gone home and slept again, the time passed again. Yet he was surprised to randomly open his eyes in the middle of the night, a dark room surrounded him and the clock by his bed shined little numbers in the dark.

At first he had noticed something warm trickle down his arm, he flinched, almost screamed when realizing it was a person shaking him awake.

“Dongho?” Jonghyun grabbed at his own chest, terrified out of his mind to find the man next to him, for a brief second he had forgotten he was staying at his house with him.

But of course, how could he ever imagine Dongho sitting next to him. He had imagined this so many times, his brain had already convinced him it could never be real. A sweet and playful dream of Dongho returning to him had turned into a twisted and cold reality.

Dongho looked just as shocked as him, “You talk in your sleep.” He explained his reason for waking the man up. “You kept waking me up with that.” He tried not to sound too whiney.

“Oh,” Jonghyun calmed down, and then decided to ask a fairly stupid question, “What did I say?”

The guy had been cursing and yelling so loudly, Dongho could not sleep himself. It was even scary. “I don’t know, some nonsense about fighting with someone.”

Although it was too dark to see much at all right then, Jonghyun could still see the other shrouded figure lift from his bed. It stopped to linger in thought, as if it had something to say.

“Jonghyun,” Donghos voice was hesitant.

“Huh?” The other had already almost dropped his tired self right back into the sheets and forget, before Dongho had called his name in that old caring voice he hadn’t heard in such a long time.

There was silence coming from the other, in the end Dongho had changed his mind, “Nothing.”

 

The guest was out by next dark morning again, leaving Jonghyun to himself. There had been something urgent that the guy had wanted to check out, so without a note he had left the other to himself.

Jonghyun could barely pull himself from bed today, he had lost all his will to move at all ever since Dongho was here to terrorize him, not like he could manage to barely live any easier before.

The guy watched as the small drops of water hanging onto the window close to his bed would slowly dissolve and trail away. It was still cold outside, so cold he just hid underneath his blanket and hugged arms into the sheets.

The brown bear had kept him good company, whenever he felt too alone he hugged it, pretending it was someone finally hugging him back. For so long he had gone without another person touching him or even someone caring about him, that changed yesterday however, when Dongho had held his hand even for just a brief second, Jonghyun now wished he would hug him more.

What a horrible, selfish thought that was, a terrible thing to imagine, he told himself. Jonghyun thought that he had supressed those unwanted feelings a long time ago, but they always flooded back to him even stronger, like a hurricane tide.

Jonghyun had just made himself numb as a self defence mechanism, he kept telling himself that he would never be loved by that man, so therefore he should not even worry. In the middle of his torment, he managed to shut his eyes and sleep.

The curtain of clouds parted over the sky, but the weak winter sun could barely reach to warm the frozen ground. The mans bedroom filled with light from outside, it was small, but warm. It shined on top of the only thing he had left uncovered by his own blanket, his peeled and plucked fingertips that had been left ruined by the cold.

As the blanket drew lower away from his face, the sunlight then gently kissed his sleeping eyelashes, that twitched to the shine. He opened them finding his own room bright and calm, uninterrupted like a still picture.

It was so peaceful, up until that other bastard had to burst back into the apartment. Donghos stressed red face was a bad sign.

The guy wouldn’t say a thing. He would not inform Jonghyun unless the other male could somehow aid him in his plans. But his face right now was too telling, Dongho knew something.

“Kang, where have you been?” Jonghyun watched the guy take a breath, before even looking back to the speaker.

“Looked into the theory about there being a crash.” He began, “Of course there were no reported incidents around here, but I still looked into places that would involve dealing with wreckage.”

“You found something.” Jonghyun became bright eyed, his face still until Donghos confirmation.

“Found a matching car part being recently sold off around here, it should lead us to what’s left of the car, and why she had decided to scrap it.” Dongho gestured his hands for Jonghyun to get up and dressed.

The tallest looked to the floor to think, “This doesn’t feel right.” He earned an uninterested response, “What does?”

“I have a bad feeling about this. Why would someone drive so far out to scrap their own car?” Jonghyun raised his face at Dongho, fearing for the fearless man.

By now it was obvious there was something fishy surrounding this whole thing. Definitely, this had to be some kind of a set up. But of course there was no point of trying to tell Kang that, he was fine with heading right into danger while shrouded in his path by his own ignorance.

Dongho ignored the plea of the others, not caring about his sour look or paranoid thoughts, “Get up, we are going to check it out.” He flicked his wrist at the man for the second time to come with.

Jonghyun quickly changed his entire look, “We?” Dongho was totally not going to drag him into this mess, whatever it was. “I can’t do this alone. I need help.” Dongho objected.

Jonghyun knew this town, knew the places and people to be his guide. But Dongho was only using him, but without the bastard his search would slow, which is something he could not afford.

It was ironic, Jonghyun sarcastically snickered throwing his smile to the side, “Then ask someone else, I never wanted to help you in the first place.” He mocked.

Right then, a nerve in Donghos lower eyelid had twitched. Perhaps this was his last straw he had with this awful brat. Dongho jumped at him, his fingers tight like claws at Jonghyuns shirt collar. He had pushed him down in bed to initiate a stare down.

The two stared back and forth at one another for solid five seconds over an unbreakable glare. “I didn’t ask you to help me, punk. It was an order.” Dongho threatened the other.

His words made Jonghyun laugh. He could not say he was only now disappointed in Dongho for using him as a mere tool, Jonghyun had already expected such from the man with flames for pupils.

“What makes you think I’d listen to orders from you, bastard?” Jonghyuns new smile was a little too cunning for Donghos liking. The two had just realized that both of them had gone mad.

The hands that had been stretching around Jonghyuns shirt collar shot up directly at his throat, two thumbs began to sink deep to close it shut, to prevent another mean insult from coming his way. Dongho had lost reason, he didn’t realize how painful this actually was for the other, his mind clouded by his own sudden rage.

“Ah, It hurts!” Jonghyun squirmed, his eyes wincing shut to the sting. His hand folding away Donghos with force. Dongho realized his mistake and instantly shrugged off, slapping his wrists to his sides as if they had gone dirty, his fingers curling and flexing.

“I am sorry.” He looked away from his own guilt, “I never done that to anyone before now, I’ve no idea what came over me just now.”

Jonghyun, that bastard deserved all kinds of misfortune, he really did, but Dongho still felt so ashamed for ever laying a finger on him. All the frustrations he had pent up over the past year had just unleashed, temporarily turning him into a someone so unlike himself.

Jonghyun believed that he himself was already messed up, rotten on the inside. It would be a waste to throw punches at him, Jonghyun would never learn and keep running his mouth, almost as if he just wanted to be punished on purpose.

Maybe he did, Jonghyun had accepted he deserved all of Donghos wrath, anger and hate directed at him. Jonghyun thought that this treatment was earned for his sin of hurting and losing the trust of his best friend.

The tall man had shut his eyes as a reflex and had not opened them until now, that was up until he felt the warmth of a finger trace and tickle his throat.

Jonghyun opened his scared eyes to watch Dongho gently go over his own marks that he had made on the other mans neck. His hand had suddenly stopped to twitch in place.

Something inside of Jonghyuns shrunken stomach had moved right then, he could feel it loudly pound from under his skin trying to break out. The man hadn’t felt this way in so long, he couldn’t instantly describe what it was like. Butterflies – it felt like butterflies.

“We gotta find you some ice.” Dongho suddenly reacted acting if he was about to bolt out of the room, Jonghyun shot up to grab into his elbows.

“No. Lets just go, please?” He begged the other man to not show that much worry for him. The other relaxed his shoulders and exhaled in relief.

“I think it would be better if you stayed home to rest.” Dongho put his hands on him again to help him sit back down onto the pillows of his bed, but Jonghyun lounged forwards almost rushing into the other mans arms, but still far from it.

“I am telling you, I’m fine, so lets go.” He started to act stubborn and whiney. Dongho gave up.

The shortest straightened his jacket that had crumpled up folds after his outburst, pretending to be mad at Jonghyun, when he was actually only mad at himself.


	4. Chapter 4

“This is far.” Jonghyun whined in the car.

The path had lead them way out of town and they were already nearing another. The tallest swore he had never even been near the place of destination that Dongho was taking him to, so he would not do much guide duty.

He figured that the guy was just dragging him along for the fuck of it now. So be it, he thought, as long as he also got to see through the mystery of that woman’s disappearance.

To be honest, Dongho had taken the man with him because he was scared, of course he could not admit it. 

If that scrapped car was indeed hers, then that meant there was probably indeed something weird going on. Perhaps by uncovering more of this Dongho was playing a dangerous game, one that would lead him to go missing like her.

He shook his head to dismiss those ideas, when he remembered that Jonghyun was sitting right beside him. They had been more or less ignoring each other since their little tussle from earlier. 

So far Dongho had been kinda zoning out all his unpleased groans and snarky remarks about this being a waste of his time. Dongho really didn’t want to have to smack him again for being so agitating, what he had done earlier made him feel way too shitty already.

A sudden thought crossed his mind, “Have you taken your meds recently?” Dongho randomly acted caring now, Jonghyun approached with caution.

He shrugged, “Nope.” Jonghyun quickly saw Donghos nervous fingernails deepen their grip into the wheel, carving slowly dissolving marks across its leather coat.

“Why not? What are you, stupid?” He growled, a deep low voice echoed in the tiny car. Jonghyun just shrugged again, “I don’t always have to, it just goes away on its own sometimes.”

“The chest pain?” Dongho asked, “Yeah.” The other male sounded too distant from the topic to answer.

Jonghyun just pretended that was all of it, but in reality he could possibly go on an on about his reoccurring health issues. Those pain killers made him drowsy sometimes, the side effects of those were sometimes pretty bad. There are nights that Jonghyun did not even remember.

Dongho decided that he should quit smoking in front of Jonghyun for now, he still needed him. He promised to himself that he was going to take care of Jonghyun from now on.

 

They arrived at a remote auto salvage yard far off from where the town was. Cars and vans lining the sides of the road leading up to it.

“How did you even find this place?” Jonghyun raised his brow, throwing his shoulders back to look around.

“Found a guy selling some scrap, asked him where he got it from and although he was secretive at first, but his lips got loose after I paid him.” Dongho looked out for a place where to park.

The car engine had finally stopped, Dongho turned to the other to announce with the most unenthusiastic look, “If we are lucky maybe there is something left of it.”

Dongho left Jonghyun alone in the car while going ahead and not waiting for him. Jonghyun sat there for a minute thinking over just how unconvinced he still was over this whole thing, and how it made no sense. But the curiosity got the best of him, and tripping head first he ran from the car to find Dongho again.

He caught up to ruin the conversation of one of the workers and Dongho. The boy apologetically bowed and kept his head low, eyes hidden behind his long droopy bangs.

The two men ahead of him talked while slowly walking to the yard out back where steel frames of cars stacked in hills. Jonghyun just so overheard the two talk.

Dongho was speaking, “What do you even do with these cars?”

Jonghyun couldn’t really see the other mans face as he spoke. The edges of his hair streaked with gray tucked away under a cap, “We’d strip them of all it's fluids and hazardous materials and then crush it to take them to a local shredder.” He replied, earning pretend understanding nods.

It looked like the two investigating had arrived just in time before the car was gone. Dongho threw a glance back at his friend that the worker must of noticed.

His voice rang of nervousness, “You two aren’t cops right?” Dongho instantly put his suspicious on the guy, “No, we’re just looking for his missing car.” Dongho pointed his chin at Jonghyun, “Why?”

The man nervously laugh, his chuckle sounded like a deep throat cough. Vapor steam pooling from his mouth in the cold, “If this is the same car that you’ve been looking for, then it was actually towed to here from a police impound lot.” The man scratched the head.

Any abandoned car found on the road would be towed and impounded by the police department until the owner shows up to pick it up and pay the fees. But if its owner could not be contacted, as well as if the vehicle cannot be connected to any crimes, its sold for scrap.

“That’s not possible.” Dongho interrupted, “Its been less than a month since it could have been found, cars stay impound for much longer than that, right?”

The worker raised his hands to gesture he had no clue, “Then I guess it isn’t the one.”

“We still want to see it!” Jonghyun cut in almost out of breath, surprising Dongho, “I just want to make sure.” The elderly man nodded to him, telling them to follow.

Dongho and Jonghyun matched their steps to walk slow. Jonghyun began a conversation behind the back of the strange man, whispering to his friend, “Kang, something doesn’t sound right.”

“Yeah, I feel it.” He shrugged, “The police towed a car wreck and just decided to just scrap it without linking it to any cases? Maybe these guys are just as bad as the ones back in Seoul.”

The guy lead them to a wreckage that looked a little less than a car anymore, but more like a steel frame after its innards had been taken out. No plates or anything of sorts that could point to its past ownership. 

“This is it.” He announced, even there was not much to look at. “But how did ya’ lose it anyway?” The man turned to Jonghyun in suspicion. Of course, the car had come in already wrecked, so the made up story about Jonghyun just abandoning didn’t add up.

Dongho spoke without much consideration, “What do you think? He crashed it on the side of a road and then got too scared to report it.” The older male swept his sights to the ground, pretending he had not heard to just let it slide.

Meanwhile, Dongho had leaned into the cars interior to at least find something he could recognize, but it was just steel and bolts left.

“Anything notable about the car when it came in?” Donghos voice called loud from inside the steel carcass.

“It was just all scratched up, and the engine had been blown out. Although the gas tank was still full.” The man explained.

Just as Dongho was about to pull himself out he saw something glimmer in his sight. His pupils went huge, focusing on a long, dark female hair stuck onto a bulging screw next the glove compartment. He didn’t want to call it out loud, but that served as his full proof, that this car was probably the one. It had to be.

This meant that Kyulkyung really had to be going this way, she really had crashed somewhere. But that couldn’t be the end of it, if she had died in the crash then she would have been found along with it. Kyulkyung had to have abandoned it and fled from the scene. But why?

Jonghyun scratched the back of his neck waiting by the car and impatiently kicked the pebbles under his feet. Dongho was in there for quite a while looking for more.

If it was up to him, Jonghyun clearly couldn’t tell if the car was hers either, he had never seen her drive this one before. She got this one right near the end of her and Donghos relationship, it was supposed to be brand new. 

Although he felt it was a bit strange, she didn’t look like she was working hard for it or had been saving up, but then again he didn’t know about her family status or anything since she was always so secretive, maybe that woman really had secretly been richer than he had assumed.

From the corner of his glance, his eyes met with the worker again. The man instantly looked away from Jonghyun, pressing his mouth to a phone while leading himself away from the yard with big hurried steps. It struck Jonghyun as odd, be he just shrugged it off.

 

The ride back was way too quiet, Dongho had sunken deep into his grim thoughts trying to guess what could have happened. At the same time, Jonghyun didn’t believe such evidence, a human hair could not prove someone’s identity unless it was tested.

“I’ll go to the police station and ask about the origins of that car.” Dongho looked at the road ahead, ready to string his bow.

The guy didn’t even feel sorry for himself. His ex fiancé had probably already escaped to some foreign country by now, drinking and partying without the sad man in her mind after scamming some other poor guy out of his money.

That woman had always been a puzzle to Jonghyun, she had appeared into their lives out of nowhere, no background, no family connections that they knew of. But if she had only date Dongho to scam him for his money, then why did she ever cling to Dongho so hard from the start. He didn’t have that much money to his name, Kang was just like any other guy in the city.

Jonghyun was confident that her love for Dongho had never been genuine, he found that out after the two had split and she came to him. But Dongho could never believe such a tale, he was convinced she loved him, why else would she accept the engagement. It made no sense.

Dongho noticed Jonghyuns silence, it seemed almost eerie, his face static and cold as if had not ever known a smile. A strange question had popped into his head right then, “How did you predict that she had crashed?” Jonghyun shrugged like it didn’t matter. 

“It was just a blind guess.” He didn’t look at Dongho to say that, not realizing that Dongho was starting to accuse him a little.

The shortest sat in disbelief, in his mind all signs pointed to this being way too suspiciously off. And when Jonghyun was purposely acting so uninterested, Dongho couldn’t help, but to place his suspicions on the man. Of course, this guy was supposedly the one who could have last seen her.

Donghos words sounded stronger now, like an order, “That car was hers.” Jonghyun wasn’t willing to play these sad games anymore, “It could have not been.”

The angry man decided to drop it for now, but he kept glancing at the other from the corner of his eye in search for clues of a lie on Jonghyuns face. Surely, the prick was an already proven liar once before, Dongho expected nothing less of the bastard.

 

Inside of the police station, behind the tall counter sat a young blue uniform wearing officer, tapping his thumbs to the beat of a rhythm game on his phone as his battery continued to down. Bored out of his mind, sitting at his job and doing nothing, there was nothing really for the cop to do around here.

He angled the toes of his shoes from right to left to make the rolling chair slowly sway from side to side. In that very moment someone unexpectedly barged in through the glass doors of the station as if they were to break through.

The officer became bug eyed and jumped to answer the slightly teller man, but the person ran right past him, instead coming to yell at another senior officer working the shift beside the other cop.

He slowly backed away to his chair, but still eavesdropped with much interest about how this guy had found some junk car remains he thought belonged to his ex. The other senior officer immediately returned the same passive aggressive attitude to the man, shutting him down and telling him that investigating is a job for the police.

It wasn’t unusual for unsatisfied citizens to come in and announce they had solved their own crimes without any solid evidence for it, just like this guy, who was only going off a hunch.

The eldest police man called someone, and then more cops stepped in to talk this guy through. Everyone appeared to be dismissive of him, but he kept insisting his theory to the station as if it was all a fact.

The young officer almost wanted to look into it himself because the case sounded interesting enough, but one of the higher-ups called from his office to have this guy out of the station for causing a ruckus.

The angry man left barely without getting himself put into cuffs for disrupting everyone’s work inside of the tiny department. But before the stranger got to leave, he for a long second met his eyes with the short boy in the uniform, the rest of his face hidden behind the tall counter.

 

All lights the in apartment were still out even after gloomy Jonghyun had already wobbled to his bedroom, he didn’t even to think to remove his clothes, let alone shoes. The bed squeaked accepting his whole weight and he just stared to the ceiling, the back of his hand pressed to his own forehead.

Jonghyuns head was hurting from over thinking now. He simply wished not to care at all no matter what had happened to the missing person. But Dongho was in his way, using his time and using him to find her. And it honestly hurt him.

For weeks and months he had been in denial about wanting Dongho back. He missed his friend, and hoped that one day he would miraculously come to forgive him. Jonghyun had been secretly waiting for him, holding his breath until his body could turn blue. But the sun would come up and go down, and he never did come.

Jonghyun wished he could turn it all back, seen what was wrong with Kyulkyung before letting her into their lives, before finding himself in her apatment in front of the horrified, trembling eyes of his best friend.

He never had the chance to tell the guy how much he loved him, and he never will. There was nothing left in between them, and now Jonghyun roamed in loneliness and self-loathing. 

From the corner of his eye Jonghyun saw the medical receipts pile one the shelf by his bed reminding him to take his medicine. But he didn’t want to, he felt just fine without feeding himself pills. It hurt sometimes when his lungs ached, but there were painkillers for that.

Instead, he hugged his brown teddy bear. The little guy had been with him ever since he had left Seoul. His little companion, he used to replace the void of Dongho missing from his life. And it helped him better than any kind of drug, it was warm and fuzzy when held, as if it was alive and hugging him back.

Dongho arrived back pissed off and out of his mind, his path to police station had been uneventful. Nobody would listen to him and he was just told to just leave everything to the investigators. It was simply a waste of time.

His raging eyes set for the sleeping figure in the deep end of Jonghyuns apartment, someone who he could push all of the blame onto like always.

He stomped over to the other male who had been deep asleep up to now, and without a care began to shake him awake. Jonghyuns shoulders were yanked from the floor of the bed, at first he freaked out, not understanding if this was only part of his dream, or if his demons had escaped into the reality, because they all wore the face of Dongho.

“What do you want from me?” Jonghyun asked the face in front of his that reminded him so much of his best friend, his first love lost.

Dongho scanned the mans face reflecting low light in the dark, it was so unmoved so disconnected from it all. Jonghyun was tired, half asleep.

A flash of light in the dark made the drowsy man protectively shut his eyes as a reflex, the silly thoughts left him when he had become awake from it. The lamp by his bed had been turned on, and now Dongho was pulling him out.

“We are going.” Dongho spoke with an angry grunt in his voice, he was being scary again. “Ok.” Jonghyun felt like a puppet, unable to reject.

 

Jonghyun shrugged the collar of his jacket higher up his neck to make up for the lack of wearing a scarf outside in the winter. A slush of melted snow and salt crunched under their feet as they neared a meat grill restaurant windows brightly lit at the end of the dark street empty of movement.

As soon as they entered, the atmosphere was totally different. Loud tables, clinking dishes, chatter of both other people and the radio blasting old music all over the wide open room.

Dongho sat where he and Jonghyun had sat last time, raising his hand at the waitress to gesture his need for drinks. Dragging him out of his bed now made sense, the guy was absolutely planning on getting wasted tonight, but he didn’t want to do it alone. Jonghyun wished he wasn’t here.

Jonghyun didn’t bother to ask why he had to be out here anymore, instead he tacked Donghos awful mood, “What did the police say?”

Dongho snort, “They wouldn’t say jack shit.” He lowered his head, hiding it behind his wrists, “Tight lipped bastards told me they’d take care of everything.”

Jonghyun was starting to feel bad, “Maybe they will.” He spoke in pity for the other who was just starting to look like he was crazy.

“Drink.” Dongho ordered as soon as his drinks had arrived, two full cups of foaming beer. The guy had always been a bad drinker, he could never take alcohol like Jonghyun could, but now that apparently didn’t matter to him.

Dongho watched Jonghyun drown himself in the cup first, forcing it down to get the weight off his shoulders as Kang had suggested.

Secretly Dongho had another plan for tonight. He suspected Jonghyun already, and after his search had hit a dead end it only pushed him look at his only suspect more. He wanted to get Jonghyun drunk, have him confess all of it while he is out of it, because Dongho had no idea what else to go after.

The second Jonghyun had downed it, he instantly regretted it. His eyes watered and throat burned, but Dongho kept telling him he would be a weakling for not having anymore that night. Although to him Donghos voice sounded much more like a muffled noise drowned out somewhere in the background rather than speech.

Jonghyun was already starting to figure out what the bastard was doing when he kept passing him more things to drink every so now and then, and when Donghos voice kept trying to talk to him the whole time to keep him awake. But like always, Jonghyun obeyed to him.

Somehow this whole scene reminded him of another night back when Kyulkyung had just dumped Dongho and called off the wedding. 

She asked Jonghyun to talk to her, and since he was friends with her too, he went to console her that night and even try to talk her into taking Dongho back. But she wasn’t crying or being sad after the breakup, for some damn reason she seemed glad and it pissed Jonghyun off.

She made him drink with her to the point he quickly became wasted. But that could not be it, he could not get drunk from one glass, that woman must have put something in it.

 

Kyulkyung dumped the limp body of the sleeping male in her own bed, whining at how heavy it had been to move. Then she went to steal the shoes of his feet soon after. Jonghyun was too out of it to process any of it, he was having dreams, vivid and full of color unlike anything else he had seen.

He felt wrong and his body wouldn’t move, but he could not wake up from it no matter what. He had drank too much, or did he even drink. Jonghyun could not recall.

The woman had somehow removed his hoodie, leaving him with just the shirt underneath and carelessly, or purposely tossed it to the ground of the room. She didn’t intend to actually touch a hair on his head that night, instead she was only setting up Jonghyuns limp body like a doll, positioning his limbs for him to look like he was sitting.

However it was too hard to control him when all his limbs did not stay the way they should, falling flat by his sides. Right as she sat closer to Jonghyun to pull him higher up on the pillow, he then made an unexpected noise. 

“Dongho.” He moaned in his sleep, his neck arching back and throat dried up in an instant. “Ah, Dongho, are you there—?” He continued to call out the name of the man in his dreams.

Kyulkyung quickly removed her hands from his shoulders that the man must of mistaken for the hands of another, becoming confused as to why Jonghyun was dreaming of the man while laid out on a bed.

But then it clicked, she began to smirk down at the sleeping man. The nails of her fingers dug into his shoulder again to wake him up, it made a bruise. 

Feeling pain, he gasped awake calling out the name of his best friend, this time in face of said mans ex lover, “Dongho!”

In horror realized his mistake, and then he gradually became more uneasy recognizing parts of Kyulkyungs bedroom. He had been taken to here, but why.

The woman began to mock him in a teasing voice, “I heard you calling out Donghos name in your sleep. Why?”

Jonghyun shook his head, he pretended that he had not done it, that it wasn’t true. She laughed again, “Does he know you do that?”

Jonghyuns heart raced out of his chest, of course Dongho had no clue his best friend had feelings for him, if he found out then he would perhaps just abandon him. He was too scared to imagine.

“What if I told him?” Kyulkyung spoke with an evil glare in her eyes that the drunken man feared like the eyes of death. “No! Please, he can’t find out about this!” He begged, unknowingly giving himself in to the blackmail. 

The woman was good with words, the way she twisted the always made the other person full of fear. “Why? Are you scared he would be disappointed in you, or become disgusted knowing the person he trusts had those kinds of feelings for him?” Her smiley face did not at all suit her venomous words.

Jonghyun didn’t know how to answer, it was like she had looked into his heart and pulled out all of his worst fears. He knew she was after something, so whatever it was, he gave in to her sick game.

“What do you want from me?” He cursed at the woman, but his voice was barely any scary. “If you don’t want me to tell him. Then just go along with this.” She snickered.

“With what?” Jonghyuns eyes were open wide, and elbows crawled back deeper in the bed as she stood from it. “All you have to do is just sit there and wait, easy right?” She instructed.

While she had left the room for a minute, Jonghyun wanted to run and hide somewhere. But his head was throbbing so hard he could not push himself to even roll out to the floor. He found his clothes thrown around on the floor next to hers, even though she was still fully dressed. None of this made sense.

The woman walked back in wearing a different outfit and sat on a chair facing the bed legs crossed. Mindlessly she began to check her newly done nails as if waiting for something to happen.

“Have you kidnapped me?” He asked a question that the woman found silly, “Nope, just sober up a bit and you can go on your own.”

Something about that still seemed off though, what did she mean by going along with it. What on earth was she talking about.

Jonghyun followed her eyes and saw a clock on the wall nervously hover over a new digit. Was she perhaps waiting for someone, Jonghyun asked himself, but could not answer.

She continued to ignore the other man on her bed for long minutes, while he sat there clueless as to what was being done to him, what was he waiting for by being made to lay there flat. Until she finally decided to speak, “Well, I guess you can go now.” She smiled.

Without waiting for her to change her mind Jonghyun pushed himself up, grabbing to his jacket thrown to the floor and pressing it to his chest instead of having it over the shoulders. He ran straight for the door, like a raging animal from a cage, and when he opened he ran into the person he never wished to see now.

Donghos face dropped, and the flowers he had bought for his ex seemingly withered in his own hand seeing his best friend flee from her apartment, dressed only in his under shirt.

“Jonghyun, what are you doing here?” He tried to be rational, looking at the boy slouched and frozen still like a statue. 

“You- you can’t be doing this to me right now?” His lips quivered and breath drew cold. “Dongho I—” He stopped.

It was all a misunderstanding, some kind of an ugly coincidence, Dongho told himself. His best friend would never do something like this to him and of course, Jonghyun wanted to explain the truth, but Jonghyun realized that Dongho would never trust him. He only trusted Kyulkyung, that lying wench. She had set this whole thing up.

And even if he did try to reveal her sick plan, she would then tell Dongho about him, she would tell the man that he loved him, and Jonghyun would not be able to live with himself if she did.

Jonghyuns eyes glared from Dongho to the elevator in the background that seemed so close for him to run towards, just so he could just escape this awful moment in time. When he tried to run without answering his friends question, he earned himself a punch.

“Answer me!” Dongho demanded, his flowers had now been smashed to the floor under Jonghyuns still bare feet. From inside the room, Kyulkyung began to sob, “Don’t hurt him Dongho!”

As if, that woman didn’t care for Jonghyun one bit, if she did she would not had threatened him, made him go up against his own friend.

Jonghyun dropped to the ground, his lip split and front row of teeth coated with red. In distress and still high from whatever had been in his drink, he continued to run away, now only by desperately crawling on all fours.

Dongho yelled out his full name in misery and disgust, and then tearfully he turned to his ex, who pulled him inside to stop him from stomping his friend to death in that very hallway. Right before the door shut, Jonghyun caught a glimpse of something shining in Donghos hands, his new wedding rings.


	5. Chapter 5

Donghos initial plan of getting the other guy drunk had quickly gone south after he had decided to get tipsy himself in the process. He believed maybe he really needed a drink too after these past days of empty search.

Meanwhile, Jonghyun was by now out of it, his head barely being able to hold itself up on top of a weak neck. Yet he was not being talkative at all as Dongho had expected, instead the shortest had started to whine about mundane and unimportant things of his own, while Jonghyun was not at all paying attention to his slurred words.

“Hey, are ya’ even listening!” Dongho raised his voice at the other who had just experienced his ears un-popping from that loud voice of the other.

“What, what is it?” He barked back in spite.

“You fucker don’t even care one bit do you?” He hammered his elbow down on the same desk they sat at. “I even quit my job to come out here and find her.” He whined.

“And its all because of you. Its all your fault.” Dongho blinked at the other drowsy male. The tall man snort, “You should blame yourself for ever trusting that woman.”

Dongho almost stood, almost. He slowly sat back into his seat not to cause a scene and get thrown out early, although he had already attracted some stares anyway, they that made his face look away in shame.

After a short bit he glanced back up, his stare partially hidden under his big eyebrows that stuck out from his mean, battle readied face at Jonghyun. For a while he had just been angrily chewing his food, however not even after a minute later, he snapped with his next complaint up.

“What is it?” Jonghyun groaned before the other could speak. This time it was Dongho chuckling in irony, smiling at his enemy for even asking such a thing. Jonghyun should know it all by now.

The shortest laughed, “ So, did it feel good when you hooked up with my fiancé the next week we broke up? Huh?” Dongho didn’t sound all that threatening and scary now that the alcohol was in his system, now he only sounded tired.

The tallest groaned, he didn’t want to discuss this topic again, “No it didn’t, just leave me the fuck alone already.”

“Then why’d you do it? Answer me punk.” Dongho reached his finger across the table and pushed it into Jonghyuns forehead to wake him back up again, “Why did you have to hurt me so bad, your own fucking friend?”

Jonghyuns rational thoughts were clouded, and in the heat of the moment he was starting to become too brave, “I’d never hurt you,” He grunt.

“You’d never hurt me? Is this a joke?” Dongho laughed at Jonghyun, only for him to yell louder, “No I wouldn’t, because I love you.”

It made him pained knowing how little Dongho would believe him for saying it, but it was the truth. “What the fuck are you saying you bastard?” Dongho grunt under his breath, his upper eyelid doing a twitch.

“I love you.” Jonghyun repeated himself, hoping that maybe Dongho would believe it eventually. It was easier to confess while drunk. Although Jonghyun knew he shouldn’t, he had secretly wished to say those fated three words for so long.

Dongho was weirded out, angry and aggressive. Everything Jonghyun had predicted he’d be like all at once. “Stop saying that shit to me, do you have a death wish?” The guy warned, mouth full of spit.

“You don’t believe me?” Jonghyun joked. “Go to hell.” Dongho spat back at him, mean lines drawn across his forehead.

“It’s your fault. It’s all your fault.” Donghos whines became a murmur under his pout lip, he ignored the man until it was time for them to leave.

 

Jonghyun was having trouble walking, his steps were wobbly and knees gone soft about to bend and fold on the pavement with any next step. But Dongho didn’t help him, even though he walked more sober.

Jonghyun laughed and giggled drunk by himself trying to catch up with the other walking ahead. A pavement lead alleyway trailed uphill to where their row of apartments was. Outdoor tents of nearby businesses cornered the path from both sides, some of them still open shining light from the windows to the unlit cold path outside.

Dongho was ticked off walking, he thought that Jonghyun was laughing back there at him, and when he looked back he saw the other smile wide ahead right at him. The bastard was mocking the angry and drunk Dongho, ridiculing him.

Donghos fingers flexed into a fist, knuckles turning colors to white. He stomped back with big scary steps, and then out of nowhere, he punched him to wipe that dumb grin off his face for once and for all.

Jonghyuns eyes shot wide feeling dazed from the hit, he swore he felt his jaw go numb for a second. While his feet gave out and he fell. Dongho caught him, by the collar of the guys jacket he held him from falling head first into the spotty pavement.

Dongho yelled at his face in anger. He was hoping Jonghyun would at least fight back to make this fair, but Jonghyun didn’t think to spar with him, he was willing to the hits that came his way. That way he could at least a little pay back for what he had done to the other.

“Why aren’t you hitting back?” Dongho roared, his hands trembling while gripping the other who even refused to stand.

The guy could not do that. “I told already you, I love you.” Jonghyun smiled now. What difference did it make now. Dongho hated him anyways.

This courageousness had only earned him another punch, although this one wasn’t as strong as the last anymore, Dongho was growing weak, “Bastard, if you had ever loved me, then you would have not done that to me!”

Jonghyun smiled at the ground wide in irony, the man got it all wrong. He didn’t mean he only loved him as a friend, Jonghyun loved him more than that.

“You bastard.” Dongho reoeated for the final time, letting go of his grip, and just as predicted the other fell to the ground of mud, curling up into a ball in preparation to be kicked and stomped.

The other grew tired, watching in both pity and disgust at how the other male trembled and twitched beneath his feet. He was weak, small and defenseless.

“Get up.” Dongho ordered the body, but it hurt when Jonghyun tried to, so he just remained where he was. The shortest groaned and began to peel him off the ground himself if he had to, “You heavy jerk, move.”

His legs were limp, and arms wouldn’t grab. Donghos only chance now was to carry the drunk guy home first, although a part of him wished to leave him here out on the street for those words that somehow hurt worse than a spear through the heart.

 

The bedroom filled up with Donghos heavy pants and stomps until he managed to lift Jonghyun off his shoulder, he did it gently sitting him on the side of the bed to review the extent of injury his punch had done.

He was less drunk now, or at least it felt like he was more aware of how serious the situation had been for them both. With a click the old night lamp by Jonghyuns bed switched on, shining small light on the tired face of the drunk.

There was a split on his lip, a scratch on his skin from where his cheek had met the pavement, dirt and pebble stuck to the dried blood. Seeing it made Dongho grimace.

He left Jonghyun sitting there to return with a wet towel, and then began to dab it over the bleeding spots. Jonghyun hissed having his hurting jaw be turned from side to side of the other who looked for more bruises.

“Why?” He asked the other, Jonghyun had been confident that if Dongho ever had the chance he’d leave him out to die, not take care of him like this.

“Shut the hell up.” His helper whined.

Truthfully, Dongho didn’t know. It just seemed like the right thing to do at this point. He hated Jonghyun and he wanted to imagine him dead a lot of times, but a part of him still made him care for his friend. Something very strange had bound them together.

They met when they were young, Jonghyun traveled far from his hometown to Seoul just to study and have a better chance of getting into a good school – the same school Dongho was thinking about. They were both students out of pocket, and in a city they were still unfamiliar with, they bonded over the same things.

Dongho had been naïve, trusting anyone that came into his life, because he had very little friends. His easygoingness and friendliness to the strangers he shouldn’t trust was perhaps his biggest flaw back then.

Maybe if he had never opened his heart to Jonghyun, to Kyulkyung, then maybe he would not have ended up being this miserable, Dongho always thought. He had changed to avoid the same mistake.

Dongho suddenly realized he had forgotten to answer and Jonghyun was just staring at him, eyes wide open and waiting. Dongho shrugged.

This fool was so pitiful, he should be happy living his life after getting rid of Dongho, but he wasn’t. Kang sometimes wished he could just somehow probe into this bastards head to see what was wrong with him to become like this. The man was ill, physically and emotionally and he was living the life of someone who was hiding from something. Or maybe he was just hiding from himself.

Right then, for some reason Dongho had just remembered that the guy had told him he loves him, although that confession didn’t really seem real. After what the man had done to him, how could it be real. It was just a cruel joke, that’s why Dongho had punched him.

The silence of their states was interrupted when Jonghyun felt the need to wheeze, his chest jumped and his teeth automatically clamped down to prevent it, even if it hurt.

He choked in his own throat, with all his might holding his jaw shut to prevent Dongho from witnessing him vomit blood again. Indeed, the disgusting copper taste coated the walls of his mouth, and he had no choice, but to swallow less than a teaspoon of bitter liquid that had come from his hurting chest.

His eyes teared up trying to hold it, hoping Dongho wouldn’t notice it, but the other watched in grief already knowing what it was. Dongho knew he had caused the man to previously fall, break or tear something open inside of him again, so it was his fault.

Almost violently, he grabbed to the jaw of Jonghyun that was still sore, to pray it open with the help of his thumbs. The other resisted, whining and raising hands in his defense, only further proving Dongho he had something to hide.

Jonghyun winced when Donghos thumb broke past the line of his shut mouth, sliding over the row of his teeth pressing to his cheek. The man pulled out the next second, slowly looking at his finger now coated in red spit.

In terror Dongho yelled at the other, “Did you take your medicine yet?” Jonghyun tried to explain why he had not, “It doesn’t work like that, won’t help much.”

“If your doctor prescribed them to you then you should be taking them you idiot!” Dongho insisted, trying to make Jonghyun feel guilty.

“How often are you meant to take them?” Dongho interviewed him and the other man knew that if he said anything at all Dongho would probably memorize it to taunt him and enforce him to take his drugs. He kept shut.

Dongho knew he was starting to get angry again, he had no choice but to drop it for now. He stood from the bed and told Jonghyun to rest up and get sober first. If they still didn’t despise one another tomorrow, then Dongho would try to talk him about it in the morning.

Jonghyun just rolled over in bed, taking off his shoes and getting under the sheets jacket and all rest still on. Dongho sighed at the sight from across the room, the bastard did not even shower before bed, in fact he had probably only seen him do it twice since he had even moved in.

After a while, Jonghyun sat in his bed again unable to sleep without hugging something first, he grabbed his giant bear and cuddled his arms around it to bed.

Dongho saw it and found it fairly childish. “Why do you need to hug a toy in order to be able to sleep?” He asked, in a mocking voice.

“I pretend its you.” Jonghyuns sleepy voice was muffled, lips pressed into the head of the plush.

Donghos left eyelid twitched, and he flashed his teeth at the man facing away from him in bed. The bastard had closed his eyes already, but Dongho could still tell he was unable to sleep as his feet rubbed one across the other under the sheets.

He sighed and arrived to sit down on the same bed as Jonghyun, making him jolt in surprise. “What are you doing?” The boy freaked out.

“Just shut up already, you need to sleep.” Dongho got himself fully in the bed and groaned behind his ears. Jonghyun just let it happen, he didn’t know what else to do about it.

Without any put on resistance, reluctantly Dongho began hugging his arms around the man from behind his back. He did this to comfort the other, to help the man sleep better and in order to fix his own guilt of beating the guys face in. But the hug felt strangely comforting for him as well, Dongho had to admit. It had been a long while since either of them had touched a person like this, felt live warmth from another.

The tallest laid there with his eyes peeled wide open, clueless and his heart racing. It had been ages since the two had laid down like this. The last time was perhaps back when the two were penny-pinching, hopping from couch to couch trying to find a place to live while attending university together. He kinda missed this.

Dongho was quickly asleep, putting his arms into an unbreakable lock over the other when he slept stiff. His breaths tickled Jonghyuns earlobes from behind, making them red. It was so soothing being like this, almost magical. It had left a numbing effect on the tallest, so soon after he miraculously fell asleep.

 

The next morning had come, or at least it was bright outside for a while. Dongho shot his head back on the pillow finding a stranger in bed with him, it took him another second to realize that somehow after being slightly drunk last night he had ended up in bed with this punk.

Jonghyun had shifted to lay on his other side, so now him and the other man were facing each other in this awful, awkward position where it looked like they were some kind of lovers. At least they were both still fully dressed, so that eliminated some of that weird thought out of Kangs head.

He couldn’t see Jonghyuns face, the boys long overgrown bangs covered his eyes to the middle of the bridge of his nose, fluttering in place whenever his breaths came out stronger. This up close, Dongho could see how pale Jonghyuns skin actually was.

He remembered it once being healthy and bronze back when they were friends, but now it was sickly and transparent, the tiny veins under his skin could be seen web underneath in red and purple. Dongho had never noticed if he had been like this from the start, or only just overnight.

Dongho theorized that the guy might have caught a cold from last night, perhaps even a fever if he was unlucky. Fearing taking his arms off Jonghyun where they had laid the whole night, he instead decided to check the mans temperature with his cheek.

The guy pressed the side of his face up against the forehead of the other, and it didn’t feel that hot. Only a little warm , but that was probably because of the jackets they had worn to sleep.

The slight movement and the warm cheek to his head had caused Jonghyun to part his eyelids and look up. He saw Dongho hugging him, with light shining all around him as if it were a halo crowing his head.

“Is this a dream?” The boy asked, his voice still weak. Dongho saw that his eyes had gone shut again right after that question, he was really still half asleep. “Yeah it is.” He claimed, not wanting to make this too disturbing for himself.

“But when this dream ends you gotta take a shower, okay?” Dongho used his chance to plant a subliminal instruction in that mans head and also to mock the guys odor. He did smell really bad up-close.

“Hng.” Jonghyun returned to sleeping, arms hugging tighter around the other, sincerely believing it was all part of a dream where he could just hug and feel Dongho close. Jonghyun stretched his shut lips into a closed smile, chin over Donghos shoulder. In his head he was with him. At least he had him in his head.

Dongho let out a quiet whine trapped in this jerks arms. Was the guy really still drunk after the whole night, he asked himself, trying to unhinge his locked fingers that had now gone limp.

After a brief struggle, Dongho got away, but his feet wouldn’t lift for him to walk away just yet. He looked back at his bruised friend sleeping with his arms empty. With a flinch, Dongho faced away from that picture, for some reason it made him wish to weep. For some reason it made him want to lay back down and stay for longer.

Terrified, Dongho stood from the bed and disappeared in a frantic search for his smokes. 

 

The day had progressed into noon, Dongho sat on the couch thinking over what to do about Kyulkyungs disappearance from here. He seriously contemplated giving up the search and going back to Seoul, after his reports to police did nothing.

He was helpless and felt like nobody was on his side. With trembling thoughts, he couldn’t stop imagining how that car could have been hers. No, it definitely was, but the wicked cops had just carelessly mistaken it for abandoned scrap on the side of the road.

It did not make sense unless it’s plates had been removed prior. But why would anyone do that, why would Kyulkyung crash and then take the time to remove any identification off her own car. Was she really hiding from someone? Perhaps she was, and fled to Jonghyun for help, but why him, why not Dongho.

A pair of tired eyes rised to see the said man exit the shower to give him a dirty glare. Jonghyun was so used to it that by now, he saw it as Donghos normal way of greeting him and did not mind it.

Dongho concluded that his initial suspicions about Jonghyun couldn’t be true. He could not have kidnapped Kyulkyung himself, the guy was so weak and sick he could barely even get himself out of bed. She could have easily knock him out with one weak punch if she ever needed to.

The larger man hid his face into the palms of his hands again, slouching over to sigh. He was totally out of ideas, defeated, and Jonghyun could read it off from him too. He was hopeless like this for a while.

Jonghyun stood in front of Dongho, “I’ll help you.” The other thought he had misheard, “Huh?”

“I’ll help you look for her.” He added, “We just have to look for where the car crashed, where it was going before it had crashed.”

The light in Donghos eyes lit up again, as if a new hope had appeared. Jonghyun continued with his suggestion, “The guy from the scrap yard told us the gas had been full, and its far here from Seoul, meaning she had to have stopped somewhere.”

Dongho spoke in doubt, “So we go around gas stations just asking if anyone had seen her?” Nervous fingers in his lap began to cluck nail against nail, “If she paid in cash, and she probably did, then it would be hard to track anything down.”

“These places should have a bunch CCTVs that record the outside and inside, maybe we will be lucky.” Jonghyun shrugged, but his words still convinced the lost man to try, planting a seed of hope that he needed so much.

Kang was so fired up to go out and find her right now, he had failed to notice the pained expression on his friends face. For Jonghyun, if this was his only literal way of keeping Dongho by his side for at least a day longer, even if he yells or insults him again, then so be it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nobody is looking quick lets update

The men two rolled out, the jackets over their shoulders pulled high to guard the necks. Their determined strut attracted stares of some self serving customers outside a local gas station, although probably it was rather due to Jonghyuns nasty bruised face and the band aid placed over his newly split lip.

This gas station was located right on the edge of town leading from the main highway used to get here, it was the most likely place that the missing person could have passed.

A buzzer at the door warned the front desk of their arrival. The door closing behind them shut out the cold coming from the outdoors, so their hands could now leave their pockets, folded up collars drooped back low.

This place was so abandoned, no one else was present at the store inside the gas station other than the one person at the counter. A radio played low music in the background, silently humming a pop song through the rows of scarce grocery shelves.

A young woman worked at the desk, she looked about as old as a highschooler, so perhaps she was a part timer here. The girl did not bother to greet them or even look the customers in the eyes. Bysy mindlessly painting her nails a bright color while chewing on a piece of gum.

“Hey miss.” Dongho approached her in a grumpy and mean tone, knocking on the counter to gain her attention. Where had that cheerful and happy guy in him gone, Jonghyun shrugged to himself.

The tallest wandered off and made himself occupied while looking at what the shelves had to offer, his eyes would then secretly flicker to the corners of the store where the cameras capturing visitors should be, but he hadn’t found a single one yet.

“Huh?” The young woman behind the desk replied, not bothering to sit straight or move her nail polish off the desk before speaking to the stranger. “Do you work here for long?” He asked.

The girl grimaced, as if he was some kind of a weirdo coming onto her. Kang cleared his throat to explain, “I’m looking for someone who might of come through here for a full refill this past month, paid in cash.”

He watched the woman change her expression and shrug. Dongho looked back behind himself meeting helpless eyes with the other, who also shrugged to him. 

There were no cameras inside the store, nor the outside, while all other modern Seoul city gas stations would have nearly twenty different angles. It was like this town was literally hanging on the edge of the world or something.

Dongho turned around to catch the girl staring at him with eyes scrolled high up away from her nails, waiting for him to make his point or leave. He promptly pulled out his phone to show the picture of the woman along with pictures of her car so that at least there was something to go after.

The girl was thinking hard about it, looking at the car alone gave her no idea, but the smiling picture did remind her of something. “Huh.” She thought out loud.

Dongho jumped to his toes, almost foamed at his mouth at the little chance of his ex being seen somewhere and existing.

“Those two did come through here.” She noted, “They were kinda weird and suspicious, so I memorized them.”

The woman behind the desk recalled, seeing a nervous female run inside as if she was in hurry. She was wearing a hoodie, hair tied and hidden inside, and wore dark glasses that did not display her eyes fully. 

Usually this was a red flag something might go very wrong, the store had no security, memorizing the description and the car was all she could do. In case of a robbery the best was action was to give up the money and just call the police soon afterwards, so they could just catch the criminal later in the small town.

The woman wearing hoodie and glasses had dropped the money for the gas. Her hidden eyes anxiously following the hands of the cashier recounting the paper bills before fleeing once the receipt had been printed. Another unknown figure followed her, they had been hiding behind the shelves at the back as soon as they had come in.

Jonghyuns ears eavesdropped from behind a shelf of store goods. His eyes looked at Donghos back through the gaps, as he frantically spoke unable to connect sentences nor words properly. “Them?” The tall man repeated to himself.

As far as Dongho had told him, she was traveling alone, so perhaps this wasn’t who they were looking for. Although Dongho saw different, completely disregarding the mention of another passenger.

“Did she mention where she was headed, do you know which road she took back?” Dongho was talking too much and too fast at once.

“She just drove by, straight down this road once and I never saw her again.” The teenager was starting to grow anxious the more loud the man in front of her had become.

“When was this? Do you have the receipt of that purchase?” He demanded, starting to borderline scare the youth with his intimidating stance.

In worry and alert, the woman’s trembling eyes shifted to the other man. She stared at the busted face of that man for long, the same one that had been suspiciously loitering behind the shelves just now. 

That man then emerged to hold a hand over the shoulder of the yelling male to interrupt him, “We aren’t the police, we can’t have the receipt of someone else.” The girl held her breath in relief.

Dongho shrugged his arm off from himself, angry for more information. The girl stuttered and replied as expected, “It was a month ago, I don’t remember.”

“Show me the receipt!” Dongho began to yell desperate. 

“Lets just go to police and ask them to retrieve the receipt?” Jonghyun tried to calm the other man, he was so angry and irrational, plus the part-timer was already scared shitless by this brute.

“I don’t fucking trust cops.” His fist hammered down on the counter and face shot to the ground, he growled, “There’s something fishy going on and I swear they are involved!”

“Dongho, not all cops are crooked, just because you had some bad experiences of your own doesn’t mean you cannot trust them.” Jonghyun made the man turn to him.

“What does that mean—” Dongho realized he was still in the gas station and discussing their private matters out here would not be wise. He stopped.

“I am going back to the car, be quick.” He looked around the place for one last time before stomping out all by himself as if he was a giant angry toddler.

Jonghyun was left looking back at him, before looking down to see that the jerk had pressed his wallet into the other mans palm before leaving. Dongho wanted to prepare dinner for tonight, Jonghyun had to buy something for him.

 

The ride back into the city was probably the most tense one that they’ve ever had. Dongho was angry again, but he himself didn’t even quite know what exactly. Just angry at the world it seemed like.

It was awkward shopping at the same gas station right after they had made the part timer scared for her life due to Donghos ragged looks and angry yells. The guy really looked scary like he could throw tables, but Dongho was actually nothing like it. He was all bark and no bite.

Jonghyun held the grocery bag in his lap, which mostly consisted of instant and other microwave foods, as well as extra toilet rolls.

The mishandled missing persons case of Kyulkyung wasn’t the only reason Dongho despised dealing with cops, it had to do with his new in-law who was a high ranking police officer, according to Dongho, that guy was apparently a cretin. But then again, he had married Donghos sister, who was almost half that mans age.

One would figure Dongho would try to use his police connections to speed up the case, but the guy was too stubborn. He didn’t want to talk to his new extended family, didn’t even want to consider it. Perhaps that’s what made him snap back at the gas station, as soon as Jonghyun mentioned it.

However, they both had to admit that like this they were pretty much miserable without help. Every new clue lead to yet another dead end, and it seemed that if Kyulkyung was still alive by now, they would have ran into her at least once already in a town this small.

Dongho was still on a lookout though, slowly trailing the road from the gas station to the literal gates of the city, counting every off-road turn or driveway she could have stopped at. Not giving up his hopes to find her. 

In the midst of his anger, he suddenly had remembered Jonghyun was sitting beside him and his face suddenly calmed in front of him to not make himself look like a fool any further. 

He silently observed the boy looking straight out the window, sitting still as a picture.

Dongho saw his busted lip and the band aid that should come off soon. He reached to touch it, unexpectedly triggering a fight reflex in the other who then gasped in shock, as if he was going to get killed by Donghos hand coming to strangle him.

“Calm down, you fucking asshole.” Dongho pulled his hand back, his own face showing small signs of embarrassment after the failed interaction.

“Sorry.” Jonghyun apologized in a tiny ashamed voice. “No, its my fault.” Dongho looked back straight at the road when speaking.

“You are probably afraid of me. I only keep causing you harm.” Dongho admitted, his guilt finally taking over.

He glanced at Jonghyun and still felt like he hated him, and Dongho would never stop hating him, but at the same time, that guy was a small piece of all that he had left, since everything in his life was in pieces.

“You probably hate me too right? I mean you must be?” While Dongho asked this, a nervous smile of frustration had passed his lips.

“No.” Jonghyuns answer was short and simple, he really wasn’t the man of many words anyways. “I could never bring myself to hate you even when I tried.” He spoke with sorrow in his voice.

“If we kept hating each other without a truce like this, would that even do much for us?” Dongho was conflicted about their best option even if they had to keep working together.

Jonghyun had no clue, but no matter what he could still could not hate him. How could he, Jonghyun loved him, and now Dongho partially knew it too.

A sudden phone ring erupted from the pocket of Jonghyuns jacket, interrupting their troubled thoughts. 

Annoyed, Dongho pulled air into his mouth past tightly gritted teeth, making a hissing sound. That ringing noise always pissed him off, “You ever gonna pick that up?”

Like every other time, Jonghyun was going to just let it ringing, but now he panicked to silence his phone prompted by Dongho.

“That shit keeps waking me up every other night.” Dongho swore to grab his phone and put a damn hole in it if he had to. Jonghyun apologized, “I keep getting weird calls and I can’t do anything. If I block one, another number starts calling me instead.”

Dongho raised his eyebrow, “Ever thought of picking it up to see who’s calling?” Jonghyun shook his head, “If they are so adamant then its probably just loan sharks.”

“Right.” Dongho looked away. None of his business, like always.

 

The stuffy smell of their shared room welcomed them back, unwashed kettles and pots stacked under the dripping water of the sink waiting to become clean again. A box of buckwheat was placed right beside it, which had to be to be soaked and cooked so they could have dinner later.

As soon as they arrived home Dongho became avoidant again, distant to speak with Jonghyun, and it did hurt the tallest a little. Kang had always been so sweet and caring, but not to him, maybe the whole world, but not him.

Dongho had shooed Jonghyun away from the kitchen, only after getting lectured for being too slow with washing dishes, wasting both water and soap down the drain. 

Trying to make up for being so useless, Jonghyun took a hold of Donghos laptop, looking through data as if he could spot something new this time. But it was simply a waste of effort, that wench had really fallen off the face off the earth.

Busy with the screen of the computer, Jonghyun hadn’t noticed Dongho sneak up directly in front of him. The body stood waiting behind the tilted back screen out of sight, without a word Dongho suddenly slapped that lid down and took back the laptop. 

This was so weird when he wasn’t saying anything, it felt calm right before the storm. Unfortunately, Jonghyuns feelings had been right.

The very next second, out of nowhere Jonghyun was swiftly pushed down onto the floor by the bed. Lost and confused, he tried to push out, even scratch to get the pair of much stronger arms off of him, not knowing their intent to harm him or not.

He began to scream so hard his eyes immediately reddened around the corners and filled with tears. Jonghyun was scared of Dongho like this, he was so scared that one day he could seriously kill him for real.

Dongho was struggling to fight him back down, because the boy was fighting back for his life to survive. But Dongho was always stronger. He sat on the boys hips, his legs locking in place on the either side of Jonghyuns narrow frame.

Just about as Jonghyun was to give up and let it happen, he saw Dongho grab something from his hand. A small medicine bottle jiggled in his nervous hand and poured into the other palm.

Instead of fear, Jonghyuns emotions were replaced by anger. This asshole was going to force-feed him his medicine. Jonghyun yelled and squirmed to get the man off, but he was too big to push.

“Stay still!” Dongho instructed him for the better, but Jonghyun wasn’t about to give in to the guys wishes. He objected just to spite Dongho, his chin shooting from left to right where his friend could not catch him.

Dongho didn’t wish to make it more difficult by having to shove his fingers inside of his friends mouth, but he was forced to in effort to spread it, so Jonghyun could swallow the single pill. As a reflex, Jonghyun bit him as hard as he could, but Dongho refused to take his hand out even if it bled.

Jonghyun closed his eyes and let out a sob. He didn’t want this. He didn’t want that stupid pill, he was fine.

Dongho tore his hand away and immediately clamped down the mouth of the other until he would swallow. Jonghyun couldn’t feel where in his mouth that cursed pill was, only that Dongho had put it there for him to sink it down his dry throat without water.

Jonghyun looked at his once best friend, hot tears streaming from his eyes to his cheeks to the pool of his earlobe. Dongho stared down at him with the same terrified expression, he felt so wrong for doing this, this was the worst he had ever done. But he wasn’t stopping until Jonghyun would swallow his damn medicine, because he needed it to live longer.

Dongho gulped, his eyes scrolling down to the boys throat and Jonghyun made a pained squeak when he did, because that’s where the pill was. The shortest gently squeezed down on the lump formed in the front of Jonghyuns neck, and it forced the boy to gag and then swallow.

The shortest hopped off to let his friend sit up and breathe, Jonghyun was choking, it hurt when it went down like that dry. The tallest managed to stop wheezing, looking at the other with reddened eyes full of hate.

“Why did you—?” He demanded to know. Was this Donghos new sick way of tormenting him, is this how he had decided to act out his revenge, Jonghyun needed to know after he was made to feel horrible.

A spot in Donghos chest tied into a knot when Jonghyun had misunderstood his intentions. He didn’t do it to hurt him, but to rather help him. 

“I don’t want you to get sick if you didn’t take them!” Dongho winced his eyes shut when raising his voice, not wanting to see the reaction of the other. That bit and bleeding finger throbbed clenched inside of his stretched sleeve, but he acted like it was nothing.

Dongho just continued to yell in a desperate tone, “I already lost her, so I don’t want to lose you too.” He admitted the most wicked thing.

Jonghyun froze up for a bit, like a mechanism trying to shut itself down and restart to be functioning again. He could not believe what was he was hearing, now from the shock even his tears had ceased to flow.

“Dongho—” His voice was weak and tiny, his eyes glimmered like two newly polished dimes.

“I know! I already know, okay?” Dongho hunched over in shame, his bloody fingers flexing even harder making his hidden arm tremble.

He continued, “I hate you, but I care about you at the same time and its so difficult. More so when I don’t even know why I should care.”

Jonghyun shook his head, “You shouldn’t, its not fair.” He believed that he deserved to be hated and it could be no other way, but the mere implication of that only angered Dongho.

He begged, “Don’t say that bullshit.” His voice had gone softer and sweeter to Jonghyuns ears, “We are a team for now, okay? Just like the old times?”

Jonghyun surely wanted the old times back. Although, until when would that be, because once Dongho did find Kyulkyung he’d just go back to her. Kang had always loved her more than him. Jonghyun thought that for Dongho, in a world that had Kyulkyung in it, a place for Jonghyun did not exist.

Hell, the guy wouldn’t even trust to believe him now if he told him the truth that he had never been with Donghos ex, that she had framed him just to break the guys heart for fun. To Dongho she was always innocent, without a flaw.

But regardless, Jonghyun nodded to Donghos offer, because to him every second he could have with the man was precious. Even if he was kicked or blamed for something he had never done. 

Relieved, Dongho then pulled him into a tight hug, and although he couldn’t forgive him ever, his mind felt at peace knowing his old friend was not laying dead somewhere on the opposite side of the world, but safe by his side.

Jonghyuns arms twitched themselves up, his body wanting to reject the touch, but at the same time his mind flooding with joy. He wanted to hug back so much, but it felt so undeserved for him. Dongho felt his nervous heartbeat next to his, and decided to squeeze even tighter.

The embrece had become so tight, that the shortest felt his own shirt button pop somewhere. Meanwhile Jonghyun almost gulped up a hiccup when his chin was suddenly pressed down into the far shoulder of his friend, tilting his face up enough for him to see the dark ceiling.

In that moment, Jonghyun felt the need to repeat himself from before. “Dongho, I love you.” He spoke without regret, a new trail of tears following the old.

He was saying it sober now, Dongho remembered how he had been saying the same thing before when drunk, and that he had hurt Jonghyun for saying that. Back then it sounded like clear mockery, but now it only made him conflicted.

“You love me?” His voice hanged on the word love, he had never imagined his friend would ever spell it out to him like this, “How?”

“I don’t know. I just do.” Jonghyun hid his flustered face in Donghos shoulder, “Is it bad that I do?” The question was more directed at himself, rather than Dongho.

The shortest pushed him away, lightly, gently. His arms holding the other man by the shoulders, Donghos eyes trembled looking for clarification in Jonghyuns. Unlike his lips that sometimes spoke of the vilest things, his eyes never lied, and right now what he saw in them was the truthfulness, reflecting the perfect mirror image of Dongho back at himself.

Kang hesitated to answer, he didn’t even know what to answer. It felt weird knowing Jonghyun had those feelings for him, but weirdly enough he wasn’t disgusted about his enemy confessing love for him.

What he felt exactly was probably pity. Pity that Jonghyun had broken his heart, ruined his life and relationship only to fall in love for him, like this was his divine punishment. But truth was that Jonghyun had loved him for long, way before Kyulkyung had ever stood in the picture, he just never told, too ashamed with himself.

Dongho was his first big crush, perhaps even love. So of course he had no idea how to tackle it, how to combat and suppress it so it would just go away and make things easier. Dongho was his friend, a friend for life, so how could he ever turn to him and tell him he loved him more than that.

Kang would never love him back, the idea of that was simply absurd. Yet Jonghyun could not stop, and into his adulthood, his feelings for his best friend had only gone stronger. At that point in his life Kang was too precious to lose, the risk of ever coming clean was just too big, so still Jonghyun never told him. So when Kyulkyung had threatened to tell him anyways, Jonghyuns world felt like crashing down, he didn’t want to lose him. He would rather have Dongho hate him and blame him, than to ever find out the truth he now considered gross.

Dongho was stuck debating on what he should do from here, there wasn’t really a way for him to tackle this at the moment. The strong man started to stand and then too the weakest into his arms to carry him back to the bed.

Jonghyun wasn’t too comfortable with that, he wailed his long limbs around afraid to lose contact with the floor, but the walk wasn’t far and Dongho would never drop him. He sat in the bed, legs crossed and face still pale after their wrestling match.

Dongho had made himself forget about Jonghyuns confession, “I’ll make you some food first, okay?” He tried to leave, not noticing that the boys grasp was still tied to his arm. The tallest couldn’t release the clenched fingers that had locked around the other mans wrist and it was so embarrassing.

“Sure.” Jonghyuns voice was weak, and his grip became loose in defeat.


	7. Chapter 7

The trio sat at a high chair table in a circle around their desserts, drinking iced beverages from long colorful straws. All three best friends, Dongho, Jonghyun and Kyulkyung hanged out together at the local mall.

The girl puckered her lips into a kissy pout around her straw, her eyes secretly shifting over to Donghos, who copied her expression. Jonghyun immediately noticed the lovebirds acting all icky and lovey-dovey right before his naked eyes and grimaced.

“You guys, really.” He groaned, rolling his eyes at the two, but a chuckle still escaped his mouth. 

His laugh triggered the two others to laugh too, although despite his mean stare Kyulkyung still acted innocent, overdramatically fluttering her eyelashes as if she had been falsely accused. Dongho laughed even more, his smile wider, brighter.

Jonghyun had to look the other way. He was sick of third wheeling these two to their dates already, but they kept insisting on bringing him along to hang out as friends.

At the time, Kyulkyung was a medical student, ambitious to become a well paid surgeon. While Dongho was saving up for them to one day move in together with her into a high place overseeing the city.

Not only that, but now Dongho was obviously making plans to propose to her with rings and all just like how they do it in the movies. That’s why today he was so nervous, shaking at the thought of it and pulling Jonghyun off to the side every two minutes to ask if he should still do it.

Jonghyun only encouraged him, told him it wasn’t a big deal, so he should just man up and get it done and over with already. Obviously those two were made for each other, a match made in haven. Everyone around them could see it and regrettably even Jonghyun saw it, but how exactly he felt about it didn’t matter, as long as Dongho was happy, so was he.

Kyulkyung stopped her laugh to notice her friends somber expression, eyes stuck in time and permanently locked on Dongho, as if he didn’t even realize he had been staring. The far corners of her eyes instantly grew suspicious of him, she noted what she had seen for now.

The girl quickly put on a wide smile and leaned forwards to spy Jonghyun up close, “Well someone’s a bit jealous, aren’t we?” She mocked the gloomy looking guy with a different look.

For it Jonghyun sent a punishing death glare her way, but all of his expressions looked so goofy to her, again she had started to laugh out loud. 

“Am I supposed to feel jealous of you two? Gross, I’m good.” He mocked her back. The girl just smiled it off, distracted by her boyfriend loudly slurping, slouched over and nervous.

“It’s not actually gross, right?” The shortest boy became insecure, at every chance thinking about the possibility of him and his girlfriend not making a great couple, especially before his dreams of marriage.

Jonghyun began to correct himself the best he could, “Well. Not gonna lie, It is kinda weird when the two of my best friends are now dating one another.”

Kyulkyung cut in to point two fingers at each male, “I’m just glad its us and not the two of you.” She hid her giggle behind her hand, watching as the other two would anxiously straighten in their seats in perfect sync.

Distracted by a new worry in his head, Dongho began to speak up, with this weird and forced seriousness present in his voice, his eyes insecure and darting, “You know, in the beginning I actually thought that Jonghyun was more of your type?”

The other boy slightly jolted at the mention of his own name, but he quickly understood what the guy was scheming now. Dongho was testing her, seeing if she really loves him before proposing. That bastard was being freaking ridiculous.

Kyulkyung looked caught off guard, her bracelet decorated wrist clutching over her chest in small shock, “Jonghyun?” She repeated.

“Where did you get that idea? This guy stays in his room and plays video games all day.” She shook her head, not even willing to imagine it.

Dongho was a persistent little bastard, “Come on! His mug ain’t so bad looking if you stand at a distance.” He insisted.

Jonghyun had enough being involved in any of this, he started to rant, “No way, I wouldn’t even want to touch that woman with a ten foot long pole!”

The next moment, Jonghyun could’ve sworn he had heard Donghos neck crack, snapping at him, “How the hell dare you say that?” Dongho was actually hurt on her behalf.

As the two began to argue, eventually even Kyulkyuns always happy grimace had turned to sour, “You two should marry one another then.” She instructed the two idiots now cut short from bring busy fighting.

Dongho turned at her with the same wrath, “Woah, you turning against me too?” He waved his finger at his giggling girlfriend, “Then maybe I should.” He jokingly threatened her, making her shockingly gasp and then pretend sulk.

He returned back to sucking from his old straw, like he had up to now. This whole time he had been stress drinking in preparation for confessing his love to her, and by now his bladder was about to burst in a second.

The shortest male released his lips from the chewed straw, “Hang on guys, I gotta piss so bad I can taste it.” Dongho announced, his eyes suddenly wider than ever, knees ready to leap out of his own seat.

“I can guard your bag!” Kyulkyung offered just as the guy had tossed it from his lap to hers with the same idea. “You’re a life saver!” He clumsily ran from the table.

The guy was off like a lightning bolt, and his friends laughed at him into the distance. The table became silent after that until a sudden nervous voice, “Kyulkyung, what do you even see in that guy?” Jonghyun joked to not make it awkward after it was now just the two of them alone. 

She joked right back, although her eyes glanced away elsewhere, busy trying to figure out Donghos bag, “Could ask the same to you.”

Jonghyun paused dead still, he became a little horrified at such a strange remark. There was no way that she could see right through him, no way. “What is that supposed to mean—?” He sounded cautious.

His question was ignored by the other, who worked quick hands to get into Donghos backpack before he would come back. Jonghyun silenced himself, seeing that woman pull out his damn wallet.

She looked inside of it, but instead of taking the money she just searched for something. It was surely suspicious seeing her dig into the guys stuff like this, but he didn’t raise his voice to ask her what the hell was she thinking.

The woman later gave up and put everything back. After a minute for judging stares, Jonghyun prepared to question her about it, but just then Dongho had returned and she greeted him with this very specific smile, one she would put on her face in less then a second. For some reason it seemed fake.

“Hey, Kyulkyun can you come with me for a sec?” Dongho didn’t instantly sit down, prompting for her and Jonghyun to raise from their seats too. As always, the tallest man was ready to obediently follow the pair where ever they’d go.

“Its fine, you don’t have to join us.” Dongho warned his friend, hinting what was about to happen with his eyes. 

Jonghyun was then reminded that the guy was going to propose, and he was probably going to do it now, but something was making Jonghyun want to selfishly object. In a split second he had turned from totally supportive to desperate.

Jonghyun didn’t trust her, his gut feeling was telling him not to. Not only that, Jonghyun loved Dongho too, so now he felt his heart crumble at the thought of losing him forever.

“Ah, okay.” Jonghyun looked away, blinking in effort to scare away the burning feeling in his eyes. He was forming tears out of nowhere, thus he wanted to rush Dongho gone before the guy could even see them to figure Jonghyun out.

“Just go, take your time.” He sat back down in defeat, as the two skipped then away to find some perfect spot on the second floor mall balcony, with a glass ceiling open to the night stars that Dongho had been telling Jonghyun about for days.

 

It was a late hour back in Jonghyuns current apartment, another day wasted in bed. These days he had been feeling more sickly than usual, a never ending fatigue and lack of energy prevented him from doing even the simplest day to day tasks today.

Meanwhile Dongho had been out for the whole day as well, so all Jonghyun did was wait for him to be home again. He felt powerless when the man was not near him, and his longing had only become worse. Just when his life had become different and settled, that greedy bastard had to show back up again.

From under the duvet Jonghyun poked his head up, sneaking up to a window that was facing the road outside, he glanced out to look around for the guys car. The ground outside was covered in a sheet of sparkling white snow, still flakes slowly twirled down from the sky visible only under a headlight of a street lamp post standing right by his window.

In that circle of light stood a figure, Dongho tall and stiff, having a smoke by himself. At least the jerk didn’t try to light up inside the room anymore, freezing out there instead. Although it never helped the smell, his clothes always reeked of it and just being near him made Jonghyuns nostrils burn.

It had been a small while since Jonghyun had started secretly watching the other from the sill of that window. Dongho had his head tilted up to view the night sky, perhaps to count rare stars.

Could he really not see him looking, Jonghyun asked himself. Dongho was so close, yet so far away. The guy didn’t know he was being watched, but the other man wished he did, he so desperately wished that he stopped being invisible to Dongho.

After another moment, Dongho finally turned around stomping the decayed cigarette out into the cold snow under his boots. From the corner of his eye he thought he had seen something in the window of Jonghyuns bedroom window, a shadow had just ran past. He shrugged, opting out to regret it.

The silence of the unlit room was interrupted as the locks in the apartment door began turning from outside, then after two hard stomps, the same door drew shut. The keys rang into silence dangling from the door.

Jonghyun didn’t have to turn his head back in bed to look and see who it was, he could tell just by his breaths. Dongho sat down on the edge of Jonghyuns bed expecting the body to be asleep and without thinking let out a tortured sigh, one that sounded like he had been keeping it locked inside his lungs all night long.

The fabrics of Donghos clothes rubbing and shifting off his shoulders sounded loud in the empty hallow space that was Jonghyuns apartment. In the dark and silence, Dongho even began to speak to himself as if he was speaking to someone else. He had figured that the sleepy figure to his right wouldn’t mind, as Jonghyun spoke in his sleep sometimes too.

“I can’t stop dreaming about her, nightmares of all the possible places she could have ended up, ways she could’ve died in, alone in someplace cold with no way of finding her.” Dongho sounded so sad, like he was starting to give up.

He corrected himself, the tone of his voice suddenly changing to desperate, “No, she can’t be dead right?”

Jonghyun couldn’t sit still when hearing Dongho sound so troubled, but he couldn’t say a thing to console him at this time either, coming from his mouth those words probably meant nothing to Dongho anyways. Jonghyun continued to act like he was sleeping.

The room was silent, Dongho couldn’t answer his own question, because he already feared what the conclusion could be in the worst case.

In thought his eyes had wandered off getting caught looking at the sleeping figure of the man on who’s bed he had sat. Although he didn’t want to admit it, he cared about this jerk too. Jonghyun was sick, but he was just dragging the guy along on his own little adventures, he blamed himself.

A tired hand reached to Jonghyun in the dark, his fingers suddenly attracted by a weird patch of skin formed across Jonghyuns neck to his chin. That place felt dry and rough to touch, as if Jonghyun had not washed himself properly and some kind of residue, dirt and grime resided absorbed into his skin. Dongho suddenly got the strong urge to just grab a wet towel and clean it himself.

But before he even could, upon feeling Donghos hand touch him, Jonghyun had flinched so it all became too evident that he was only faking being asleep. No point in pretending anymore, Jonghyun began to sit up in bed, pushing himself up by the elbows and then his palms, turning around to look for the other in the dark.

“Did I wake you up?” The familiar dreamlike voice called from the black void in front of him until the mans shape had become more visible overtime.

Maybe looking at him had been worse, if Donghos sulking voice wasn’t already bad enough, then now Jonghyun had been put face to face with the most saddest, deepest eyes shining at him in the dark.

“No—no, I was already awake this whole time.” Jonghyun looked away, pretending to rub out his eye just to avert looking at the other man in this state.

“Then I guess you heard me? Oh, well.” Dongho let out a sigh that was soon followed by a small chuckle. Jonghyuns fingers tightened in his own lap hearing it for the first time ever.

Jonghyun poked his eyeballs at Dongho to see if it was safe for him to speak, afraid of saying the wrong thing. “It’s okay, I know how much she means to you.”

Dongho began to chuckle more, “Except that one night, when you forgot?” He cruelly joked about his own heartbreak.

That night when Dongho had seen him leave the apartment of his ex, right as he was on his way of asking her to take him back, right as he was going to offer for them to just get married straight away.

But he was strangely laughing about all that now, making light of the situation by turning it into some self-deprecating joke. It was a weird way to cheer himself up, but at least it was a sign that one day Jonghyun might be forgiven. Although Jonghyun didn’t believe he should.

Dongho continued where he had left off, “Nah, It’s been a year since we broke up. She’s probably moved on, and so should I.” He explained his stance.

“I am not trying to win her back anymore. All I want is for her to be safe, to find her and make sure of that.” He continued to speak to Jonghyun, even thought the other man was avoiding looking at him.

“We will find her.” Jonghyun promised, “She can’t be too far anymore.” 

Dongho appreciated him saying that, although at the same time it was kind of strange coming from the mouth of Jonghyun. The guy had a crush on him, allegedly, but he was speaking like in the end he still wanted for Dongho and Kyulkyung reunite. It was so pitiful.

Just then Dongho stopped him from speaking anymore silly things, “Hey. Rest up for a bit and then have a shower, you reek.” He sounded chirpy, even pulling the corners of his mouth into a small smile.

“Hey?” Jonghyun repeated to himself already confused, watching Dongho get up and leave him to shower ahead. It felt weird when Dongho was randomly acting friendly with him like this, Jonghyun didn’t think he had even earned it.

 

As soon as the dawn had come, it was back to searching again, or at least that was the original plan for Dongho, but not before stepping out of the building to look for Jonghyun first.

The little rascal was not far off, squatting to the ground and drawing circles in the snow with his finger. “Hey, kid! Lets go!” Donghos yell alerted him, taking attention off his seemingly childish activity.

He quickly destroyed his own writing from the face off the snow, subconsciously he had drawn a heart. If Dongho had seen it the guy would have probably torn his head off for such a thing.

Like always Dongho was the one driving, and Jonghyun was the one instructing him on where to go around the tiny town. All streets were starting to become familiar to the observant Kang, sadly Jonghyuns service was no longer that much needed.

A big folded paper map of the area sat in Jonghyuns lap, Dongho insisted on him using it in case they’d ever have to go on foot and their phones died. Portions of the map had been marked off, lines of marker crossed out roads that Dongho judged to be cleared of suspicion.

Jonghyun let out a one big yawn just by looking at it. “You getting bored here?” Dongho instantly tackled his signs of discomfort, although in quite the mocking manner.

Jonghyun ignored his attempt of an insult, “No I just didn’t get to sleep a lot.” Dongho took a wild guess about the cause, “Insomnia?”

“Probably.” The other shrugged, however his friend did not find this too shrug worthy, “You should seriously get checked out at a hospital.”

Jonghyun despised hospitals, “There isn’t one in this town. I’d probably have to travel far for a single visit, expensive.” Dongho understood, the guy didn’t own a car, so him going to the doctors was probably kind of like a once in a year occasion.

But still, Jonghyun was clearly unwell, and he couldn’t think of ways to possibly lure Jonghyun out to arrive at a hospital at any cost if the guy himself hated the idea of that so much. 

Dongho didn’t even wait before firing out his next question, “For how long has it been like this for you?”

“You nag like my mom.” Jonghyun quietly whined angrily puckering his lips when speaking. “I’m trying to care for you asshole.” Dongho bit back. “When then stop trying. We are already here.” Jonghyun nodded his chin up ahead. 

The road followed a forest path, tall naked trees loomed over creating an arch. This wasn’t too far from the gas station, if Kyulkyung had gone in this direction, then this had to be the road that she took. The car slowed, dry tree leaves crunching under the rolling tires as the car slowly rounded a curve on the snow peppered road.

Jonghyun looked out the side, the downhill just off the side of the driveway seemed dangerously steep, a short, rusty guard railing painted in bright yellow was all that warned the passing cars of the upcoming turn. It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that someone could have slid off one of these icy roads while going too fast. It would certainly suck to end up down there.

To their left in a very short distance was a remote log cabin that wore signs indicating a coffee shop.

Dongho glanced over to Jonghyun asking him with his eyes if they should check it out. This place was kinda off from rest of the town, hidden away behind steep cliffs and the surrounding forest, so if Kyulkyung was indeed on the run then this would be a safe place where to make a short stop.

The two walked into the restaurant that looked completely abandoned from the inside, much like all else in this forsaken, boring town. 

Their arrival ended up surprising a waitress who had been busy in middle of cleaning the tables, she was a middle aged, kind faced lady. In the back behind the counter sat another elderly man, busy reading a newspaper.

Dongho decided to not make an awkward introduction and instead just sit down at one of the tables, deciding that they might as well eat something proper while they are still at it. Jonghyuns stomach was churning and turning just by thinking about it, for days he has had nothing but instant food and other nonsense cooked by Kang.

The elderly man glanced up from his papers, but just as soon as he did, his bored gaze drew him back down. Meanwhile, the woman rushed back to finish what she was already doing, tightening the knot behind her apron to then soon approach the customers. 

For Dongho it was strange sitting here knowing that the person who they had been after this whole could have once been here too, sitting in the same exact spot. It felt almost surreal knowing that they could be so close to finding Kyulkyung.

Jonghyun thinned his lips, his face tilted down at the floor, but through the gaps of his droopy thick locks, his eyes were glancing up at the other man sitting across from him.

“Kang, I saw cameras outside facing the drive way.” He warned Dongho, his voice quiet and secret.

The next second the waitress had arrived to interrupt, holding a notebook and a clicked pen in hand looking at the guests who both had instantly gone pretending they had been trying to decide what’s good on the menu all this time.

After choosing what to eat, Dongho decided to stop the waitress by sneakily asking her if she had seen anyone suspicious recently. Dongho shared the story details of the missing woman, not revealing that he was her desperate ex. 

The woman shrugged, until Jonghyun again mentioned the cameras he had seen, unable to hold his curiosity.

“Maybe something was caught on the cameras?” He mentioned, so then the waitress tried to remember again, lines of hard thinking forming across her forehead. “Would you have the footage of that saved?” He added.

She tapped her chin to think harder, “It is saved to the computer, but if it was that long ago it could have gotten wiped by now.” She replied, making both of the investigators grow tense. If all of their search places were going to be like this, then they were probably on borrowed time by now.

“Can we see the camera feed?” Jonghyuns question sounded so rude and out of place, he didn’t even realize it. “Do you have a warrant for that?” The woman insisted, her voice quickly becoming harsh to scold the man asking.

Jonghyun shrugged throwing daggers from his eyes at Dongho who’s in law was a high ranking cop, if only they got his help then the men could get past this hurdle easy. But no, the guy had to play stubborn and hate his extended family for who knows what.

“It’s fine.” Dongho apologized, “We will just eat for now.” He sat his elbows down on the table, opting to wait for their food.

Jonghyun was confused, he thought Dongho would pressure the waitress like he did with the other person back at the gas station. Jonghyun angrily whispered, “Why did you not convince her? Now were never gonna know!”

Donghos eyes wasn’t looking at Jonghyun speaking, instead they followed the back of the waitress leave into the kitchen to prepare the food. 

She disappeared behind the counter and then the door at the back, however the old dude hadn’t moved, still obsessed with his papers.

“Go look for that computer then.” He ordered the other man. “What, are you crazy?” Jonghyun couldn’t understand, “You want me to sneak around their house?” Dongho was confident, “The guy isn’t looking, and the owner is in the kitchen.”

“You gotta be kidding me.” Jonghyun cursed under his breath, “There’s no way I won’t get caught!” He insisted.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> got 100 hits on this already *sweating* thanks lads

With shoulders all tensed up, fingers bent into fists, Jonghyun and Dongho both passive aggressively stared at one another across the restaurant table. Dongho couldn’t be more serious about this, wanting Jonghyun to go and sneak into the house to steal the camera footage, and of course it was always Jonghyun as the one who had to do it.

“And what will you do?” Jonghyun got his words out quickly before the chef could finish their meals. “I’ll distract anyone if they come back too soon. So you will have to hurry.” Dongho replied.

“But—” Jonghyun was still unsure, scrap that, he was horrified. Plus, what if Kyulkyung never made it here, what if those cameras wouldn’t be able to tell them much. Jonghyun wasn’t too thrilled about the huge possibility of him getting arrested for this shit.

Yet Dongho was desperate and out of clues. This place being so far away from the main streets of the rest of the town and it being shrouded by the forest would make it the perfect hide out for someone who was on the run, the men simply couldn’t pass up on this.

“You have to go, now.” Dongho ordered him. Jonghyun nervously chewed his lips repeating to himself how much he didn’t want to be doing this, but that spiteful jerk wasn’t going to be backing down either.

He slowly stood and began to walk and wobble towards a door in the back that was clearly off limits, behind it in the dark was a wooden stairway leading up to the second floor of the building, probably with the owners bedrooms.

Jonghyuns walk was awkward when he tried to shift past directly in front of the counter where the oldest man was still reading his paper. He hadn’t looked away from it for long, so Jonghyun supposed that the old guy would not notice him too.

Successfully he had almost gotten to that damn door, just a few more steps and he would be there. Jonghyun was sweating pinballs from his forehead, teeth gritted together in his mouth. However, just as he was about to touch the doorframe, a deep raspy voice from behind called him out.

“Hey kid, where you going?” The old man raised his eyes to see Jonghyun from the back, frozen in space and time.

After a second of no response, Jonghyun slowly turned with the most innocent excuse, “Does this place have a bathroom?” He asked.

The old man returned to his paper, “Go through that same door and turn right straight away.”

Both Jonghyun and Dongho breathed out in relief, as turns out, that guy had not suspected a thing. When Jonghyun glanced back at his friend for confirmation, the other gave him a small nod, so Jonghyun stepped up to proceed with the same plan.

To his right was the bathroom, built under the stairs leading up to the second floor, they went up, then turned up against the corner of the wall and then lead up even further. The very top had no light, it was pitch black, warning Jonghyun not to go that far.

Yet he did so anyway, hand gripping into the old wooden handle of the stairway, with heavy pants and by skipping a few steps he made it all the way up.

He was so nervous he could hardly breathe after the climb, looking from side to side trying to decide where to go next. Ahead of him was a corridor, all room doors in the corridor were wide open or made of glass, so that the sunlight coming in from the windows could fill the tight corridor in-between the rooms with natural light.

The carpeting made his heavy stomps muffled and light, he peeked into one room and then the next trying to find a computer room or a security control point. He soon found one, a study room with a desk, computer with three monitors and more newspapers belonging to that man stacking the desk.

Meanwhile downstairs, Dongho was by now already nervously picking his thumbs raw, concerned with thinking of how far has that bastard had gotten already, and how he should better hurry the fuck up. Dongho stretched his neck to peer into the kitchen and he could see half of the woman move about and set dishes down on something.

Then suddenly he had just heard something move from above, a stomp or a crash that definitely sounded like it had come from upstairs where Jonghyun was.

What if there was another person living upstairs, Dongho and Jonghyun would be fucked if that ever happened. He realized that he was seriously a prick for sending the poor guy on a mission like that.

Hearing that sound, Dongho couldn’t stop himself to not automatically shoot his eyes up at the ceiling, and at the same time the old man did too. Their eyes suspiciously met on their way scrolling back down. Dongho suddenly felt his own body lose heat all in a second.

Back upstairs, Jonghyun had just hissed out loud after looking down at the tower of papers that he had just knocked off the table in hurry, for now he decided to just ignore it and get to the computer first.

Nervous fingers pressed keys on the computer to wake it up, his back slouched forwards when he stood instead of sat. Jonghyuns face quickly lit up with a victorious smile reflecting the blue light of the monitor.

The computer did not appear to be password protected, immediately showing all the screens of the cameras placed inside and outside. Jonghyun had to just find where the videos were being saved on the hard drive.

Carefully he reviewed folders filled with dates and times of the day when the motion sensitive cameras would pick up movement, the videos consisted of still pictures, displaying one frame per second video.

Eventually Jonghyun had clicked through the endless chain of folders and files to find ones from last month still present on the hard drive, then promptly went back to this month and clicked delete on the videos recorded from today to avoid being caught, and paused the existing recordings.

But then in middle of his hurry he realized that there were no flash drives around he could use to transfer the files to and certainly he did not walk with one just sitting in his pocket. Jonghyun was in luck however, noticing a unused phone charger hanging nearby from a socket in the wall. It was one of those cords that used a detachable usb, so he quickly went to pop it off the charger and plug it into his matching phone.

In slight terror Jonghyun turned his head back to see if anyone had come here yet, while he was squatting to the floor. Nobody was there. He ran back to the computer and connected his phone to transfer said files, but it was taking a sweet ass time.

Donghos pupils flickered to dots hearing sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen stop, meaning that the food was probably ready by now. He sat with his back straight, hands clasped tight on the table.

After a few moments the woman returned from the kitchen, bringing a plate of their order and setting it down, but she quickly noticed one of the two customers missing. “Where did your friend go?” She wondered.

Dongho gulped, “He had to use the bathroom.” The woman nodded silent, but didn’t step off straight away.

“So who are you looking for exactly?” She asked him and for one reason or another Dongho decided to say the truth. “She is my – ex fiancé, I’ve been searching for a month.” He comment.

The woman changed her expression, “Oh, I hope they find her!” Dongho knew that she didn’t care, “Yeah.”

His eyes darted to look behind her, where the old man had just folded up his newspaper and then began to stand, his back hunched over and curved. The man stomped and slid his feet, taking weak steps towards the doorway Jonghyun had used.

Dongho quickly realized that they were actually fucked if he were to go upstairs and saw Jonghyun. On the spot, Dongho was trying to come up with something, an escape plan.

If he had to run he would, but he didn’t want to leave Jonghyun behind. Absolutely not, Dongho wasn’t going to let this happen.

The old man rounded the corner in the doorway, and Dongho held his breath. The waitress had left, so the view into the backdoor as the man disappeared was clear.

Jonghyun stood with his back pressed up against the door on inside of the bathroom, holding his hand over his mouth to mute his breaths of panic. He had barely made it, footsteps slowly going up the steps could be heard from inside.

Dongho almost squealed from relief seeing Jonghyun come in through the same door right after the old man had passed him. The rouge quickly skipped back to their table, his scared eyes shifting and darting to see if anyone had noticed him. They were in the clear.

Jonghyun hid his wet hands inside of his jacket, he had put them under water to pretend he had actually washed his hands after using the bathroom.

“Find anything?” Dongho whispered, watching Jonghyun give him a happy nod of approval. From the inside of his jacket, he pulled out his scratched phone, shining it at Dongho who understood that the videos were successfully in his position now.

With a toothy grin, Jonghyun held up a thumb and even gave out a wink, “Professionals.” Dongho broke his own smile as soon as the woman reappeared, they had to act cool.

The two quickly ate and left before anyone could notice what they had done. Luckily the old man probably didn’t notice his papers that had mysteriously fallen to the floor only long after Dongho and Jonghyun had already driven off to review the content.

 

“You are a fucking genius dude!” Dongho laughed at their plan and how it had actually worked. Jonghyun smiled back shy, “It was your idea.”

In joy Dongho had turned to him to pat his head, his hand began to ruffle the mans thick curls as if Jonghyun was some praised kid. But Jonghyun liked it, he had finally actually done something valuable to his friend, so it felt good.

“We are gonna go home and look through it as fast as we can!” Dongho took his warm hand away, and for a second Jonghyun had wanted to cling onto it more, his head tilting into the direction it was going before it departed from his scalp.

“Even if we have to take turns overnight.” Dongho added, determination returning to his voice.

Jonghyun didn’t want to ruin this for him, but he had to voice his concern, “And what if we don’t find anything?” He worried.

“Well, then at least we can’t say we didn’t try.” The short boy felt proud of their crime regardless.

Dongho paused after his last string of words, trying to decide if he should thank the other for his part or not. But in the end he was too easily flustered to do it. Instead he now took secret glances at the weirdly happy man beside him, stopping his staring only once noticing the guys slightly dirty clothing, same one Jonghyun had been wearing for the past few days.

“Does this shithole have a mall?” Dongho looked out the front of the car to see signboards leading him back onto a road to the town.

“I thought there was no time for you to go out to shop?” Jonghyun reminded him, triggering a defensive response. “We can spare five minutes.”

Jonghyun was suddenly taking aback, his mind blanking out unable to process what had to be so important that Dongho would put Kyulkyung on the side.

The shortest didn’t want to be accused and judged before he got the chance to expose himself, “Your shirt has so many holes in it!” 

Dongho pointed at the boys sleeve which was indeed all torn up. “You don’t have to?” Jonghyun tried to buy out of it and Dongho had already known he would try to. But he wanted to be kind, just this once.

“I already bought you a meal, so let me treat you this too.” He complained like he wasn’t even listening to the other. Jonghyun sulked in his seat, unable to ever agree Dongho buying him stuff he didn’t need.

He feared that Dongho was becoming soft, forgetting what he was here for and that caring about Jonghyun shouldn’t be his main priority. Of course he wished to regain his friends love and trust, but that was too good to be true. The two were just never meant to be.

Jonghyun became static again, he did so whenever he was deep in thought. Dongho worried for him, he couldn’t stop thinking about the things that could be on the guys mind. Jonghyun was such a mysterious soul.

The tallest suddenly spoke just as they had taken the right turn on the road to near the towns small market commercial district, “Hey, remember when you had asked me to come and help you look at the suits, but wouldn’t instantly tell me what for?”

He continued breaking into a small smile to reminisce, “You would normally never wear suits, so I had figured it out quickly.”

“My wedding.” Dongho finished his sentence. “Yeah.” Jonghyun wiped his smile as it now felt weird to do it in front of Dongho.

“Well that is long over.” The other man shrugged away from the conversation that didn’t all to well please him towards the end.

Back then, that was the exact day that Jonghyun had started to seriously fear losing Dongho, fear that the guy would be loved by someone better than him.

Towards the night skies turned more gray than deep blue. The streets were lit by weak yellow lamp posts, the snow layer reflected the blue of the sky and those lamps cast a soft, warm shade of yellow. 

The whole town was later painted in pretty colors of pink and baby blue. A lone street cleaning car drove by, shoveling the layer of snow on the roads as they headed towards the towns only shopping mall.

Dongho wished to buy the guy something bright, he was sick of looking at grays all day and besides, Jonghyun has always liked childish colors as much as him, but he was an adult now, not a kid. Even the little things like this seemed so different now from when Jonghyun lived back in the big city with him.

 

The two made it back when it was dark, in winter the nights came quicker. Jonghyun was by then exhausted, probably because of all of those other unslept nights. He ended up not even stepping his foot in the mall, sleeping in the car for Donghos choice to come as a surprise instead.

Because he was so tired Dongho had to carry him to the bed, but Jonghyun insisted he will be fine with just sitting for now. His body was so weak and frail, it barely felt like anything at all when Dongho let the guy slide off his high shoulder.

Jonghyuns eyes were already shut, lips parted to pull in deep, tired breaths as if he had been the one carrying the other. Dongho was scared for him, the guy didn’t weight much at all these days, he was ill.

Dongho went to shower, but he never fully closed the door behind him. Because if he had shut the door fully, then he wouldn’t be able to hear Jonghyun in case he needed something. A lone ray of light coming from the shower room split the outside room into two right over where Jonghyun sat.

When Dongho was done, he expected for the other guy to be asleep already, and he was, but his lips spoke in his sleep. “Dongho.” His voice sounded like a sad whimper.

The shortest froze staring through the gap of the door looking at the sleeping male say his name, and the next second his brain switched gears. He approached him, brave.

“Jonghyun?” The man sat beside him waking him up, but even when awake the guy would still silently repeat his name. He believed all of this to be a sweet dream.

Dongho insisted waking the boy up, placing hands on his shoulders and patting weight off from them. Overtime, Jonghyun had realized he was truly awake.

“You were calling my name.” Dongho spoke, asking as if he didn’t already know why. Jonghyun loved him, it was too obvious to ignore at this point.

“Was I?” Jonghyun pretended to be clueless, knowing that he probably would be the one to call the mans name in his sleep. Who else could he call out to be, but Dongho.

“I’ll help you.” Dongho said, but how could he help. Jonghyun was already worried before he was rushed into Donghos chest. The boy hugged him tight, hands tugging into the boys clothing.

This did not help, it only hurt Jonghyun more. How was he supposed to stop longing for his best friend when he was near him and now even hugging him.

Defeated, the body Dongho hugged felt limp in his hands, still and unmoving, Kang felt so useless. But suddenly lead by some kind of unexplainable emotion of guilt or just plain ignorance, the shortest kissed the man on the cheek, hoping he would wake up from this and make him become his old cheerful self that Dongho had once known.

There was no response from the other, he didn’t even blink, eyelids drooping down as he was on the verge of exhaustion. Dongho decided to try again, another peck happened closer to the edge of Jonghyuns mouth, but still he never ever turned to look back at him.

Dongho didn’t think about it when pressing a kiss down on the edge of the mans lips next. They had given these kinds of childish kisses to one another when they were younger, back then it didn’t mean anything, it was meant to be silly.

But it was no longer silly now, it was different, almost wrong for them to still be doing this as adults. But at the same time Jonghyuns dry lips felt so safe, so harmless. For a second there it made Donghos brain become disconnected from the rest of his body and lips moved on their own seeking for warmth.

He moved to the middle of his friends lips, parting his up against Jonghyuns, who then immediately undid the seal. The tallest fell into a different state, his mind becoming blind and accepting, as it Donghos lips belonged there.

Their hug was broken, but Dongho still held the boy by the back of his waist, slowly, gradually breaking into a more serious kiss. He was out of it, not realizing what he was doing, and Jonghyun knew it too. The Dongho he knew would never kiss him like this.

Overtime Dongho became more needy and demanding, wanting to earn a response. Jonghyun gave in, gladly accepting the taste of his friends tongue in his mouth. It wasn’t as sweet and sugary as he had imagined it, nothing like that, the guy was a smoker, and Jonghyun was pretty sure this was killing him, but it still felt so good.

Too into it to back down now, Jonghyun raised his hands to hold onto Dongho, fingers curling inside of the mans hoodie. Their hearts matched the same beat, or at least, they raced quick enough so it was not easy to tell them apart anymore.

At one point it was starting harder to breathe, that was after they had been making out for longer minutes, not thinking anymore, their minds blank. They continued until it was getting unbearably hot under their clothes, and then Dongho slowly pushed himself away.

He pant, forehead still pressed close to Jonghyuns after the intense act. But it was hard for him not to go back returning to that kiss, and he did not know why it was.

Jonghyun gently pushed him away a little further, and now that everything had come into picture, he became lost at Donghos actions, “Why did you do this?”

“I don’t know.” Dongho admitted his lack of intention, all he wanted was to help the other not feel lonely. To make him cheer up.

Immediately after speaking, he pounced forwards to kiss Jonghyun again the same way, and the other hesitantly agreed to it. This time it happened faster, rushed and wet. Jonghyun would moan out of the kiss and then fall right back, his fingernails clawing holes into Donghos clothing from stress.

In the heat of the moment Dongho just wanted more of this, not fully realizing what it was that he wanted. He was driven by some kind of feeling he could not understand.

With this serving as the best proof, he figured that he no longer hated Jonghyun. Instead, he wanted to protect him. The man was too dear to him to keep hating him for any longer and he felt that any of his sins was to be temporarily forgiven.

Somehow the two had at one point ended up in a laying down position, with Dongho on top his elbows on either side of the other mans head. Flustered from the powerless position, Jonghyun shot his face to the side from his friend wanting to end this already.

It was a very abrupt ending to their steamy chase, but Dongho could tell that the guy was already too tired for this, and he should probably be asleep too. Kangs head lowered into his friends shoulder, where it would nest for the rest of the night.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning Jonghyun had to sit there thinking it all over, the thing Dongho did and perhaps why he did it, but that night had been so late that his brain had managed to shut right off, he ended up not remembering a good half of it.

Dongho slept by his side after he had gone to bed, he too was conflicted. Originally, he had done what he did only out of pity, to give the man some comfort. However after the act, his own heart was starting to feel very much otherwise.

Jonghyun loved him, Kang could see it in his eyes, his speech and every little movement. Small part of him wanted to love him back to make him be happy again, so that they both could be happy. But it was still such a strange idea, Dongho was meant to still hate him and despise him. What exactly made him change so much, he couldn’t answer himself.

It turned out that Jonghyun was still as kind and giving as he had always been, for Dongho the concept was too confusing because this whole time he had made Jonghyun out to be some kind of a villain, a two faced snake.

After a whole lot of thinking Dongho decided that It simply did not matter to him anymore. After changing his mind, he wanted to take care of him, so even if they do find Kyulkyung, Dongho wouldn’t abandon him again. Especially not now when the guy had shown feelings for him.

However, his own feelings were a mess too because he had clearly liked that kiss and he did not know what it meant. It definitely felt weird kissing your own best friend, even weirder kissing someone who you had once wished so ill upon.

Dongho started to accept he had already grown too fond of his friend, maybe in a way he was even getting a little ahead of himself. Kissing Jonghyun was still not wise, especially not in the position that they were in now.

Waking up that morning was difficult, especially when Jonghyun found himself trapped in the warm clutches of his friend. His first thought was that they desperately needed to go over those important security camera recordings, but Donghos arms dragged him back down. Jonghyun had lost his sense of rush to become stuck in the hug.

The timid male looked back what was holding him back, not expecting to see Dongho right there in bed with him. “Oh.” He noted.

The shortest stalled, caught with his eyes just as wide as Jonghyuns, left absolutely without a clue on what to say for himself now. Sometimes Dongho seriously still acted like the most childish one out of the two, and right now it was shining right through him.

The two sat up from bed and made some distance. Dongho didn’t mean to end up sleeping in the same bed last night, but he had somehow accidentally dozed up and ended up instinctively hugging something soft and warm next to him – Jonghyun.

“How was your sleep?” Dongho innocently asked, opting not to bring up what happened last night first thing in the morning. The sincerity of his words was undercut by the tremor in his voice.

Jonghyun nodded, “I feel alright.” He didn’t have to say that it was all because of Dongho, it could be clearly read just by looking at his big rounded eyes that followed every jolt of movement shown on Donghos face.

That embrace had been strange for them both, a throbbing feeling still lingered on his lips after a day. Jonghyun subconsciously bought his hand to touch them and Dongho had definitely seen that.

The shortest felt weird for almost blushing and decided to still bring it up, the sooner the better. “Hey, I am sorry for—” He began to apologize.

“No, its fine.” It was almost offensive how quickly Jonghyun had removed all blame from Dongho, as if he was totally innocent for taking advantage of his friend like that.

Jonghyun didn’t see it the same way as the other, “You must of confused me for her, right?” Jonghyun came to a conclusion that terrified Dongho.

It wasn’t true. When it happened he wasn’t even thinking of her, because right then when pressed into the soft lips of his friend, Dongho had quickly forgotten that his ex had even existed.

Dongho saw his affection for her dim when sitting in front of his best friend who he was starting to actually tolerate more and more these days. To be honest, Dongho hasn’t even spoken to her in a year, same as Jonghyun, but at least this guy, no matter how hated by Kang, was still kind enough to answer his calls and take care of him.

“No.” He surprised the other with a sincere confession, “I did it on purpose.” Both men scratched their heads.

The two stared at one another in mutual confusion about why had they let such a thing even occur. Dongho was not brave enough to say he wanted to feel more of it, even if it felt unusual.

After a window of weird silence, Dongho began to sit up, “Hey, listen.” He rubbed out his eyes, this was the first time today he had broken the eye contact.

“Lets go over the footage in turns. I’ll prepare breakfast for now, so you just hop into shower and then we will decide who wants to go first.” He announced a plan he had made up on the spot just to get out of this situation and Jonghyun somewhat agreed, even with being too shaken to entirely understand it.

Right as Dongho was about to run off, Jonghyun had opened his mouth to question him, his eyes huge like a cat, but no words came out. Jonghyun had stopped to ask himself, did he really want know why his friend had kissed him? Perhaps not, knowing Dongho would never even stay in his life long term again anyways.

 

For the first time in months Jonghyun had worn something new, and not out of his decaying closet. It was a hoodie Dongho had just bough him, forcefully bought for him. It was bright pastel, baby blue that he was told to always fit him the most. Two more sat hanged on his closet.

It was kinda embarrassing for him to go out wearing it while knowing Dongho had bought it specifically for him as a present. The other guy wanted to know if it at least fits, it was hard to tell, everything looked big and baggy on Jonghyuns build anyway.

Dongho had forgotten about the other, invested in watching the videos. It would take literal days to seek through all of them, he wrote down the most likely timestamps from restaurant opening to closing time, and skipped rest of the footage for later. On the bright side, Dongho would become so busy that he would skip his frequent smoke breaks – it was that serious.

The next moment Jonghyun joined him by appearing out of the bathroom for the first time in ages and wearing his new hoodie. He did look kinda silly in it, his face shy and eyes darting while Dongho just looked at the guy and suddenly couldn’t take his eyes off of him.

“Is it that bad?” Jonghyun asked in a shy voice, also earning a shy reply, “No, it looks better and you than it would on me.” Dongho glanced away back at his monitor, going back on the video timeline to see if he had just missed something.

Dongho had been on that computer for ages and Jonghyun wished he could help in any way, but they only had one computer to review the footage on. He ended up sitting on the same couch as Dongho, although at a polite distance, to watch the footage with him.

After a while, judging by the yawns it became evident that Kang was too sleepy to be doing this, “You are tired, go take a rest.” Jonghyun watched the other rub out his eyes. “Could say the same about you.” A raspy voice tried to chuckle.

Dongho, this stubborn jerk could simply not take care of himself, and he had even expected to be wed soon this way. Jonghyun felt sorry for any future wife of this guy who would be subjected to babysitting this idiot.

Jonghyun decided to joke about what his friend had previously said about him being sick and tired, “I thought the days you cared that much for me were long past?”

The shortest hated being called out, he knew the little prick was doing it on purpose too, “Nah, I do care about you. I’d end up hating myself for caring about you, but I just couldn’t stop.”

Another awkward silence followed, Dongho tried to pretend he was busy staring into the dim blue light of his laptop display, but even if he stared directly at the screen focused, only Jonghyun was in his mind.

Just like him, Jonghyun was slightly lost. He didn’t expect Dongho to admit that he did, let alone act all forgiving and nice all of a sudden. Things had really changed after that one night. Jonghyun could only hope that their mistake of becoming intimate would not end up in hurting Dongho again.

Dongho spoke, hidden curiosity heard in his voice, “When did all of this start. You know, you liking me and stuff?” 

Jonghyun decided to joke around, “Why do you even want to know, weirdo?”

“Oh, shut up.” Dongho grunt. Jonghyun smiled, barely, but it was still there and it was so pretty, “Since we were kids.” He claimed.

“Huh, I—” Dongho stuttered, blinking his eyes as if trying to confirm what he’s seeing and hearing was right, “I never knew that.”

“It was for the better.” Jonghyun shrugged, sinking his head low into his shoulders.

Donghos thoughts immediately filled up with comical amounts of rage, “But we were friends, why would hide such a thing from me!” He wasn’t actually mad, just being a whiny brat as always.

That immediate reaction had made Jonghyun sigh, “I knew you’d guilt trip me like this once I’ve said it.” Slowly Dongho let his head down staring at the keys of his keyboard, agreeing with the other. “Such a mess.” He commented and Jonghyun agreed, “I know.”

The sudden sound of Donghos laptop lid slapping shut had made Jonghyun jolt out of the melancholy thoughts he was having. It appeared the shortest was going to take the advice and rest.

He had told himself, only fifteen minutes. Dongho would rest his eyes, relax his body, but he wouldn’t allow himself to actually sleep no matter how damn hard it was. Jonghyun tried to take it over, but Dongho insisted he would rather do it himself.

 

Skies looked like they had been oil painted with shades of both soft blue and pink, gray clouds dotting the sky. Weak breeze bit Jonghyun in the face coming from the direction he was facing, the boy hurried to get off the windy street and inside a grocery store.

The guy came to the cashier and dropped packets of instant food and some candies on the counter, watching the man at the counter scan each object one by one. Whenever the machine in the shopkeepers hands beeped, he would put it in a plastic bag for Jonghyun and went to the next, but this process seemed to take so unbearably slow today.

Jonghyun knew the cashier, much like he knew a quite of bit of other people in this town. A scrawny looking guy with long unkempt hair tied up from behind, hidden tattoos under the sleeves of his uniform. 

He was a recovering addict, had gone to jail for something bad too. This wasn’t the kind of a company Jonghyun preferred, but in a town this small he didn’t have much of a choice. At least the guy was nice to him, unlike everyone else in this selfish shithole of a place.

“Hey, Jonghyun I heard you were looking for a job?” The man spoke in a sly voice, reading his face as it grew interested. Of course Jonghyun was always in need of a job these days.

Judging by that tone of the older mans voice, probably it wasn’t the most honest kind of work. There were certain jobs Jonghyun could not take because of his bad health, but these days he was starting to get desperate. Jonghyun really needed cash right now, because was low and still had the loan sharks after him.

The timid boy carefully considered the offer, every cell in his body yelling at him to turn down the obvious threat. “Hear me out man.” The other tried to convince him, revealing a set of crooked teeth by smiling.

“Go ahead, what is it?” Jonghyun gave the guy a minute of his time, and the other gladly began to spill.

He was leaning in across the counter to speak in a more quiet voice, one that only the two men could hear, “I’ve been hearing my other uncle got a big work bonus from his higher ups or somethin’, and I’ve also been hearing that his house security system is pre-war.”

Jonghyun just remembered, this guy was related to a man they would call the sheriff of the town, a cop leading the only police department that the town had access to this far out from civilization. So the guy was insinuating they should rob a house of an actual cop.

Jonghyun quickly shook his head, “Oh no, nope.”

“Dude come on, he will never know who did it! My family don’t even talk to me.” The man begged for help. The buyer had to laugh, maybe this guy was just lonely knowing he’d gave to go to jail alone.

“We just grab whatever it is and get the fuck out of this shithole of a town, I know you want it too Jonghyun.” The guy was speaking so confidently it was almost like he knew Jonghyun like an open book.

Instead of chatting for longer, Jonghyun grabbed the bag of petty groceries and began to storm off, stopping in the doorway of the door before his hand could push it open.

Jonghyun had randomly thought about something the other guy had just mentioned, and that detail just seemed a little off to him, so he decided to ask again. “Can you tell me more about the bonus your uncle got?”

The eyes of the cashier lit up in a way best described as primal, he was heated to tell the tale to someone who could potentially be willing to become his partner in crime.

“The prick was real secretive about it for some reason, but the word in the family had spread quickly. Old man’s stingy like that, so he’s probably keeping the money at home before spending it, I suppose.” The man claimed his uncle had not spent a coin yet, but would keep hidden it in his house in cash.

Jonghyun doubted that as true, but it was still interesting that a countryside cop could randomly get such a high award, what made it interesting was the fact that recently a vehicle possibly related to a missing persons case had been mistakenly taken to a scrap yard by the same cops working here.

When these two facts were further observed, they either meant that the countries law enforcement was just randomly giving anyone on the force hand-outs these days, or that someone here had been deliberately paid off to cover up clues necessary to that investigation.

“So, you down?” The guy was hopeful his friend would still agree, but Jonghyun looked back only to shake his head and disappear from the store.

 

Jonghyun was loud with unlocking the door, dropping his keys with a cling after he was done shutting all of the locks after himself. He had not expected for Dongho to be still asleep at this hour.

Seeing the larger man nest in his bed like it was his own made Jonghyun forget about what he had to so urgently tell him just now. A sense of calmness washed over him while watching Dongho sleeping soundly next to his brown bear, and for a second there, he felt a little jealous.

Dongho woke up from his state of hibernation once his strong smelling senses had sniffed out the smell of food ooze from the stove across the room.

Jonghyun wasn’t the best cook, and he definitely wasn’t trying to impress anyone with his cooking. But this time he had put at least a bit more effort into it, even if it was just an import canned soup.

He was kind of anxious to see Donghos reaction, and it showed. Jonghyuns shy eyes avoided looking at his friend, fixated to the bowl that he had poured from the pot for them both. It looked okay, it smelled just fine, but Jonghyun was still terrified to mess it up and have the guy yell.

After having joined the table, Dongho didn’t choke after only the first bite so that was a good first sign at least. He looked up to Jonghyuns much smaller portion and protectively told him to pour himself some more, but the shy man insisted he just had a smaller stomach.

Lies, Dongho knew they were about the same, yet he wasn’t going to spoon feed him though. After half a meal Dongho was trying to come up with ways to express his thanks without becoming flustered with himself, because it would probably make Jonghyuns day, even as small gesture as like this.

Instead he reached to pat the boys hair, to ruffle his messy curls that had been recently neatly washed and still smelled of minty shampoo he had used. Dongho realized his did too, but he wasn’t going to mention it right now, perhaps to save the moment.

Eventually the two began to talk about small little things that were not of much importance, about life back in Seoul and how stuff has changed back there. Their current conversation excluded any mention of Kyulkyung like she was out of the picture, because that’s all they had been talking about already for days.

They still kept her in their thoughts. At this point it was becoming scary obvious that perhaps that woman had met a grim fate, and that they were now after her forgotten body. But neither of them wished to voice such a sad suspicion.

Instead, Dongho currently worried more about Jonghyuns slowly deteriorating health, clearly he didn’t want to lose this idiot too while they were in middle of their search. Jonghyun had lied about taking his medicine again and lied about him traveling to a doctor soon. Of course Dongho saw right through all of his pretty lies about how healthy he has gotten. He wished they could be true.

Dongho realized how much he still cared for Jonghyun, he knew he had said this to Jonghyun himself before already, but now the full scope of realization was actually starting hit him right of the head. After all that bullshit, Dongho still loved his friend and it was so unfair to himself.

He decided to bring back up his aging question, how could someone so kind could break his heart so badly. “Jonghyun?” He paused.

“Hm?” The other man continued to eat and chew, unsuspecting of the dreaded words his friend would say next.

“Why did you do it that back then? You knew I still loved Kyulkyung.” Dongho spoke with grief stuck eyes, lines of worry spreading up his forehead. A part of him wished it somehow wasn’t true.

Jonghyun stopped chewing, unprocessed food siting on the side of his mouth, stuffing his cheek. This time he was somehow not afraid of speaking the truth after so much time of sworn silence, since Dongho already had heard his confession.

“There’s more to explain, but regardless, you won’t believe me anyways,” His voice trailed off soon at the end, like he didn’t want for Dongho to hear it, “You don’t trust me like you trust her.”

Dongho became suspicious, but this time he acted calm and rational about the subject, “Is it your word against hers?” He theorized quickly.

Jonghyun nodded guilty, he knew Dongho wouldn’t side with him in the end because the way Kyulkyung had set it all up was too convincing, too elaborate.

It was obvious to Dongho as to what Jonghyun was hinting at now, he was innocent – the accusation of his friend being involved with his ex would all be false, and Dongho sincerely hoped that was the case. It would be the only explanation as to why his best friend would so suddenly turncoat.

Dongho grew tense the more he thought, a throbbing vein becoming a little more visible on the side of his forehead, “That would mean one of you lied.” Jonghyun ambiguously shrugged, returning to his food.

Kyulkyung had been so creditable that it made no sense everything could have been made up by her, because for what reason would she have been so cruel to the two men. Dongho wasn’t sure if he was ready to hear it yet.


	10. Chapter 10

At this point Jonghyun was scared to look at his bank account after he had been out of job for so long, but luckily Dongho had been swiping his own card for him. Not like that option was the best one either.

Jonghyun still felt bad for the guy knowing he had quit his job as well to go on this crazy mission, and by now he was probably dipping into his marriage savings fund to make ends meet. It looked like Kyulkyungs sweet honeymoon will have to wait for now.

The factor of cash spending during all of this, made Jonghyun think that the faster they deal with this wild goose chase the better, and if really nothing comes out of it, just like Dongho had said, at least they tried.

It was Jonghyuns turn to take over reviewing the camera footage, his eyes were fresh, still sharp. Looking at the videos now, he actually saw some potential in them. Not only were the angles zoomed to the driveway parking area, but also the road leading up to the town, meaning that even if they did only just pass the location instead of stopping, it could give the two men more clues on how the car came to breaking down and why.

Jonghyun remembered the place having that bathroom, at first that sounded like a meaningless detail, but then again, for someone who had been on the road for that long, she had to stop somewhere at one point, somewhere safe.

Jonghyun ended up being peeled to screen for hours, clicking away from one folder of recordings to the next until he could properly pinpoint the day and time Kyulkyung had been last seen closest to town.

That was up until Dongho had told him to get off the computer so he could take over, even he was impatient to find out, it made him restless. Jonghyun objected, wanting to at least do one thing right for his friend who was stuck with someone this useless and continued watching in his place for as long as he could.

 

Later in the day, the two caved in to watch the footage together. The laptop sat placed across their legs as they both looked at it at once. Dongho had been silently sitting on the edge of the bed joined by Jonghyun who was at this point practically falling asleep onto his shoulder from boredom. 

Jonghyun yawned, not being able to take this for any longer and accidentally dropped his head fully onto the shoulder of his friend out of an old habit. He had done so almost instinctively because they would do this all the time back when sharing a dorm together back in Seoul.

Back then, they would binge on study material while preparing for exams, Jonghyun was the smartest one, but not necessarily too smart when it came down to solving problems and writing mindboggling theories. The two would go to sleep on each others shoulders just to keep one another sane. They were there for each other.

But it was different now, Jonghyun realized that and snapped his ear away from his friend who had actually appreciated that unexpected gesture. Dongho still welcomed hugs, as much as he wished for someone to hold his hand and make him feel less hopeless.

“Hey, its fine.” Dongho chuckled, making a very tempting offer for the other, “You can rest there if you want to.”

Of course Jonghyun wanted to, he wanted to more than he had even done before, “I don’t think I should.” Jonghyun spoke sad.

He shot his eyes away, nervous to even show any signs expressing how much he loved Dongho while near him. The guy thought that coming from him those feeling were gross, and that Dongho would never accept someone as worthless as him.

Dongho paused the video with a loud clack, hitting a pause key on his keyboard to talk to Jonghyun instead. The tallest was weirdly surprised, Dongho took him more seriously than that stupid video they had been watching.

“No, I mean— seriously.” Jonghyun quickly panicked seeing Dongho look him straight in the eye as he was waiting for him to give up his stance.

Not fine with rejection, Dongho took the boys head and placed it where it belonged himself, “Shut up and sleep.” He gave out an order, putting on a very fatherly tone.

Jonghyun wanted to fiercely resist, but his love starved heart liked this too fucking much to imagine. Being able to touch and breathe Dongho was like something out right of a fairy tale book. It was too sweet, too sugary good be ever be a true story.

Jonghyun got himself awake again for only a second, escaping Donghos warm pillow body to retrieve an item he was not normally able to sleep without to enhance this even more. The man visibly relaxed, he breathed out through his mouth and finished the gesture with a smile.

Dongho had stopped playing the video again, staring at that damn brown bear now in Jonghyuns lap, staring at that little button eyed asshole for way too long. 

Due to being a light sleeper, Jonghyun would slightly part his eyes every now and then to notice the picture on the monitor had not moved. He investigated Dongho by arching his chin just to be able to see his face from here, and caught the guy in a stare down with his plush hospital toy.

“Do you like my bear?” Jonghyun boasted, arms knit tight around it. His voice super sleepy sounding.

“I’m quite envious of that guy.” Dongho admitted, that idiot got to hug his best friend each night, who did he really think he was. Jonghyun giggled to himself, looking back at the bears sad face, “He looks just like you.”

“Huh?” Dongho had not noticed any likeness, but if Jonghyun needed it next to him at all times to pretend it shared similarities with Kang, then that probably meant a lot.

He felt both bad and flattered at the same time. Dongho began feeling sorry for not being able to have been there for Jonghyun during his hardest times, even though back then was when Jonghyun had made him suffer. Maybe right now his old best friend just seemed so more important than himself.

Dongho knew he was too forgiving, too naïve. But Jonghyun was still too dear to him to ever throw him away, and the only time he previously had the guts to do it, was when he was already too numb to feel anything at all, nothing much left of his broken heart.

Slowly the laptop leaned closed, and was slid it aside. Dongho focused Jonghyun, laying him down in bed to hug him up. More intensely since the bastard was actually clean dressed now.

Jonghyuns brain registered his body being positioned in a different way than he last remembered it being, waking him up. Meanwhile Dongho felt that from this his heart was beating again, clearly banging up against his chest and his arms just would not unlock themselves from the others thin frame. 

“Dongho?” Jonghyuns voice was a weak squeak under the weight, but it made the other jolt up high. He looked under him in horror to see if he had accidentally smothered a man with his cuddles. Jonghyun was fine, his face all red, but fine. They even shared a laugh together.

Up close, Dongho smelled a certain way, a blend of smells – earthy, musky, stale and sweet – it punched Jonghyun right in the nose.

Jonghyuns laughs came to a grinding halt, and face became relaxed while looking at Donghos pearl white smile. He wanted to kiss him so bad, right now would be such a good time, but he was too shy and too timid to request it.

Dongho probably didn’t like him in that way, he supposed. Even if he had been given a kiss once, it didn’t mean that he would get handed out any more for free.

He pressed himself to get up, sitting out of the awful position that left his spine at risk of being crushed. But as soon as he was back up, his body would automatically push out stored air from his lungs in painful chokes.

Dongho watched him with a grief ridden expression. Seeing Jonghyun ill felt worse than anything else to him in the world right now. Kang then proceeded to rain down a hundred of embarrassing apologies, acting like this had been somehow his fault. Jonghyun laughed in pity.

“Idiot, it’s fine!” Jonghyun pretended it didn’t hurt him when Dongho was worrying this much for him. Indeed it was, Dongho wasn’t even trying to hide it from him anymore. 

After another awkwardly long moment, Dongho first ran a hand behind his neck, carefully considering his next words. Slowly, he spoke.

“Tell me what happened back then with Kyulkyung. I need to know the full truth even if it hurts or angers me.” Dongho had decided he was ready to hear what Jonghyun had bought up to him before. His side of the story.

He trusted Jonghyun now, more than anyone. Dongho knew the guy would be unable to lie, he was already a shitty liar, because each time when Dongho had asked him if he’s going to see a doctor soon Jonghyun would always break into a nervous sweaty mess trying to pull excuses out of his own ass.

“I’ve already been through so much, so just go ahead and tell me.” He begged the other, who was too hesitant to speak of it, because Jonghyun had realized that if Dongho would know that Kyulkyung had purposely staged their affair to make Kang hate his own best friend, it would absolutely destroy him.

Dongho had punched him a handful of times, even watched him fall ill and almost die after having been beaten by thugs without remorse, just because he believed that woman’s false tale. So if he found out now he had been tricked this whole time, he would probably die of guilt if not hate himself for life.

“No!” Jonghyun begged right back, not wishing to bring any of it back, “Past is past, right?” He tried to joke it up.

“Jonghyun!” Dongho grabbed his wide hands into the sides of his friends arms to force him to look him into the eyes and see how desperate he was to know. While Jonghyun felt like he might cry from being pressured.

“Please, you have to tell me.” Dongho felt just as shaken as him, perhaps worse. His heart sank knowing that Jonghyun might have kept a secret from him just because his stubborn and bitter self had refused to listen.

“Fine,” Jonghyun let out a long, deep sigh, shoulders dropping with release. When speaking, his tone was low and cold, almost a grumble.

“Kyulkyung had tricked me, had me drugged and then dragged out to her house on that night.” He spoke, “Something had to have gone in my drink, otherwise I would have not gone to where she was.”

Dongho nodded once, giving the other a signal to continue when he hesitated to say the rest. His expression was blank, it was hard to tell what he was thinking.

Jonghyun took a bit of time and spoke again, sadness in his voice had grown, “She didn’t hurt me, just took off my shoes, and I had no idea what it stood for. She then set everything up perfectly to have you walk in on me undressed in her bedroom.”

“That’s where she threatened me – she knew I liked you. And promised to tell unless I kept shut.” He shot his eyes to the floor in thought, “I was so scared of you finding out, I thought you’d be disappointed, so I just ran.”

He apologized, “I had no idea what would happen. Trust me, I never wanted this.”

“I don’t know why she had done it. She is a scary woman, and thus I feared meeting her ever again. I wouldn’t have met up with her in this town even if she had begged me to.” Jonghyun finished telling his side, his deep exhale of relief sounded loud over the endless silence that followed his entire speech.

A somber look had replaced the previous, horror struck one on Donghos face that had grown over the course of the entire story. He believed it, but to him it made oy half sense. “Holy shit.” He hissed, still trying to comprehend the whole thing.

“There has to be some kind of a reason she did that to me, to us. There was no way she would fuck us up for fun.” Donghos anger was worn plainly on his face, like he was ready to fight someone and Jonghyun couldn’t stop him.

Dongho continued to speak, ignoring his friend trying to cut in to have a say, “Maybe she knew someone was after her, and cut us off before we get any more involved?”

On the mention, Jonghyun became hurt again. Dongho had believed his truth, but instead of hating the woman for her sins, he still choose to defend her. Even if Jonghyun had clearly spoken ill of her, and how someone two faced and not to be trusted, Dongho was still undoubtedly infatuated with her.

Jonghyun wished to speak out of spite, “She said she never felt anything for you.” Donghos face changed, his brows arched into an angry line. Of course he didn’t want to hear that, after all he had come close to marrying her. There was just no way all of that could be fake too.

“I don’t wish to believe it.” He resisted, losing half of trust in Jonghyun, and the other man didn’t even shrug to such an outcome, he had predicted as much of the stubborn Kang. 

“Have it your way then.” Jonghyun turned away, deciding to go for a walk no matter what time it was, no matter how cold it was. He needed to get away.

Dongho kept sitting where he had sat before, knees spread miles apart. In solitude, the guy started to smoke in the room, just to anger his friend who had left him to be all alone.

He took a long drag on his cigarette, flicking the butt away before lighting a new one.

 

Jonghyun was aimlessly loitering around the town alleyways, not really wishing to go back anymore. It was an early morning, distant sea birds were screeching and cackling above in the skies somewhere far. 

Cold breeze bit through his thin jacket and he could feel the toes of his left foot turn colder than ones on the right – soaked boots, he concluded. Jonghyun supposed it could be worse, at least the rain wasn’t whipping down from the sky on him.

He wondered what had ever happened to his other friend from the store, hoping the crazed bastard had not actually gone to rob his family members off on his own. However after thinking over it twice, Jonghyun had concluded that perhaps being in jail was better than being stuck in this crappy town.

Thinking of that reminded him about how he had forgotten to mention to Dongho about the suspicions he had about local police taking bribes to cover up some of the case findings. Even if it sounded way out of a fiction book to be true, Dongho would still probably throw a hissy fit if Jonghyun didn’t tell him.

The guy almost considered turning back in his path and going home before remembering that he didn’t quite want to see that guy right now. Jonghyun pinched the bridge of his nose in agitation.

Suddenly his phone began to buzz, at first he thought it was just one of those strange unknown callers he had been getting more and more frequently. It was Dongho calling, the guy was panicking, slurring his words as if he had lost them right before calling. He had made a breakthrough, Kyulkyung had been caught on camera.

Hearing this, Jonghyun ran all the way back home until his other boot became just as wet too. Figuring now that maybe there was point in their search after all.

Dongho had become hysteric, pointing at the still frame on his screen that clearly showed the face of the woman, in fact, two women. 

Just like the gas tank cashier had told them, there had been two of them, traveling together. Although neither of the two had a clue who she was, they had never seen her before today. Under these circumstances, was most likely involved in the disappearance, so that meant two people had gone off the radar as opposed to just one.

In the video, the other female had much slower walking speed than the other, she was practically limping behind Kyulkyung trying to keep up as if she was sick.

Kyulkyung was a strong woman, so this stranger could not be responsible for her disappearing, she’d easily fight off someone else weak. Instead the two walked together, wearing hoodies over their head, hair entirely tucked away and face only half shown. The two occasionally turned to look back at the road, acting blatantly nervous.

This didn’t seem like all that much, but now they had precise date, time when they had entered into the city, and what they were wearing. So with this they could perhaps do a lot more, definitely more than the useless police who had done jack shit after over the month.

That’s when Jonghyun told his friend about the local police sheriff receiving an undisclosed bonus, presenting it as just an nonfactual fact or a mere coincidence. But to paranoid Dongho it made absolute sense.

On his own he decided that if all the cops were that crooked around here, then they probably were too back in the Seoul’s jurisdiction. This shit went high up, he deducted, it all was probably covered up by either someone in a high ranking position or just someone with heaps of money.

However that sounded like nothing more than a tale to Jonghyun, who did not believe such an insane conspiracy. Why would anyone go after her, and go such lengths just to make a person disappear off the earth.

If this shit was even half true, they better just leave it be. Jonghyun was not about to get himself thrown into a river tied to a cinder block by some thugs for what that wicked woman had done to deserve going missing.

Assuming the theory was true, one thing for now was certain – they could get more information, but they could not get more time. If the car has been long scrapped by the cops now, then all other possible crime evidence was probably on its way of being discarded in the same manner.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!! ty guys for reading or even telling your friends about this abt this fic even if u dont leave comments it really means a lot to me !!!

Dongho was not giving up, he absolutely could not after they had gotten so close to unravelling the case. He believed that all they needed now was just good luck, but Jonghyun believed they might need a little bit more than that.

That day Jonghyun had gone out again, it was cold and the jerk almost never went out on his own like that. Dongho had become so worried about him, at this point more worried than he was about the main task at hand. 

Obviously it was because Dongho had said something wrong to the other or done something that had upset him, but that list of things was probably too long. He was hopeless, and didn’t even know where to start apologizing first.

He sat down by the window of the apartment where the lone streetlamp crossed the view outside in half, trying to decide if he should stay and wait for Jonghyun to be home first or to go out on another hunt by himself. The time was short, but the choice really hard.

Upon hearing a familiar ring, he turned his head around to notice Jonghyuns phone going off forgotten on the couch. Without a second thought the guy went to pick the cell up as if it were his own, in dire need of knowing who the fuck kept ringing Jonghyuns phone up every day and night.

He picked up, but the line was instantly silent. In confusion Dongho distanced the phone from his ear to make sure he was really in a call or not. 

Then suddenly he heard a voice, an unknown male voice. He totally did not sound what Dongho had imagined a debt collector sound like, he was young, nonthreatening, nervous even.

“Hello?” The person on the other side asked, Dongho could have sworn he heard the guy clear his own throat in the back before he had spoken. The lower eyelid of Dongho twitched in agitation.

“Yeah, what do you need?” Dongho grunt right into the phone not realizing how angry he had sounded. “This isn’t Kim Jonghyun?” The caller sounded shocked to hear his voice.

“Nope, just got this new number two days ago.” Dongho lied. A very stressed beep had instantly ended the call right after he had said it.

Now Dongho was even more lost since he didn’t get to ask what the guys problem was, and he couldn’t give the number a recall unless he knew how to unlock Jonghyuns phone first. Instead he hid it under the same pillow where he had found it to pretend he had never even seen it.

Meanwhile, while on his outdoors walk, Jonghyun had made himself distracted from all bad thoughts by instead worrying about the little things that did not matter – his feet were cold, his hair was too long, the heating bill was coming in soon.

Under the white spring sky, he walked the cold and empty streets of his hometown knowing each one like the back of his hand. Smaller family houses were built almost wall to wall leaving only tiny pathways of passage in-between, these tight pathways webbed the entirety of the residential part of town. They were leading up hill, downhill – however, however they lead Jonghyun in circles.

On his way from the apartment Jonghyun had ran into an elderly auntie living downstairs from him again. The woman still used a cane, her bad leg had been acting even worse these days. Jonghyun worried she might have heard all the yelling that had come from upstairs and felt bad for disturbing her.

The door was quickly shut after a short exchange when the woman’s dog had come out to bark at the stranger in the stairway. Jonghyun headed back to his own apartment where he would again have to face Dongho.

Upon entering, the other guy looked like he was just about to head out and continue surveying the town, but Jonghyuns arrival distracted him.

“Hey.” He spoke casually, not wanting to act awkward for any longer. “Should I come with you?” Jonghyun offered even though he was clearly tired of this whole useless chase.

Dongho saw that he didn’t actually wish to, Jonghyun was also pale and probably not in good health, which worried Kang the most, “Are you feeling okay? Maybe you should stay at home.”

“I’m not a child, Kang.” Jonghyun shrugged, not even rushing to take off his outdoor shoes if he was about to go back out in a minute.

“Hang on, don’t be like this,” Dongho stopped him, holding him still by the shoulders. “Let’s just both stay at home then.” He insisted, speaking in a soft, desperate begging voice.

Jonghyun had thought his friend had just been in a rush, but now it appeared that wasn’t the case anymore. The boy became even more lost and confused when Dongho pulled him by the wrist and lead him to sit on the couch. To help, Kang pulled the boys shoes off himself, throwing the wet soles aside on the floor.

Jonghyuns feet were wet right through, the wool socks he had worn had become more like a wet rag taped frozen to his feet. Dongho became upset at him for this, he knew Jonghyun wasn’t paying enough attention himself these days so he could get ill at any minute and it made the shortest so angry.

“Stay here,” Dongho gave out an order, scary lines forming on his stern face. Jonghyun could not go anywhere even if he wanted to, his naked bare feet dangling in the ground too pained to feel the ground.

Dongho returned after a bit, clumsily holding up a plastic tub of laundry which had now been emptied and instead filled to the brim with steamy water. The tub wobbled and the water splashed just little over the edge when Dongho had set it down in front of Jonghyun, and as the tallest faced his own distorted reflection in the soapy water, the tallest realized what this was about.

“Put your damn feet in this.” Dongho spoke like he wasn’t even kidding around, as if he would be disappointed in the other if he objected.

“You can’t be serious, Kang.” Jonghyun spoke in disbelief at the man who was now kneeling with a towel layering his lap away from the water.

“Well I am, so don’t make me just pour it on you.” Dongho spoke with a displeased groan. Without a question, he began taking one of Jonghyuns ankles in hand, making him hiss from the burning sensation of his frozen skin being touched.

Jonghyun decided, so be it with this guy, and winced dipping his toes into the hot water to please him. It felt horrible for a few seconds, but then it became only tingly and warm.

The whines in the room became quiet and then only the splashing of water would be heard. The two figures of men became focused on one another, acting like nothing around them in this room existed in this frozen moment of time.

It was most certainly weird having another guy scrub and wash his feet for him, it made Jonghyun think of a weird double meaning behind this – Dongho was fully trusting of him now, absolutely unsuspecting of a betrayal that could come out of this. This act signified his full forgiveness. 

In the eyes of Dongho, even if Jonghyun was to cheat him again without resistance he would accept it. He cared for Jonghyun too much to let him go even if he was evil, but he knew his own best friend better than anyone to know that he wasn’t.

“Sorry.” Dongho mumbled, his lowered bangs covering the bristles of his eyelashes from being seen, so that Jonghyun could not tell if the boy was taking a glance at him from below or not.

“For what?” Jonghyun made a chuckle, his friend sounded silly when flustered. “For not trusting you at first, I was a fool.” He finally admitted.

“Whatever had happened, no matter her motive. Kyulkyung is responsible for all of this and when we find her she will tell us why.” He hissed under his breath as if he was not making a threat, but a promise.

Jonghyun was thankful, absolutely glad that his friend had come to his senses about trying to reason with that woman. “She sure has a lot to explain.” Jonghyun joked.

He thought, maybe she was really just purely evil doing all of this for some kind of sick entertainment, like faking her disappearance and making the two chase her. But what exactly did she want from them, Jonghyun couldn’t understand. Why did she have to ruin their lives like this.

Dongho wiped Jonghyuns feet clean until they were peeled red and smooth of the grime and street soot resembling something looking like a foot of a new-born. The man was lifted off the couch and taken to his bed.

Jonghyun squirmed and whined, insisting that he could walk by himself perfectly fine, but Dongho mocked him, claiming that he had not just spent the past ten minutes peeling skins off the underside of a mans foot just to have the jackass step right onto the filthy floor of the apartment.

Then Dongho helped him undress the same way and took the guy under the same blankets as him, hugging his friend to sleep. For Jonghyun it finally was like he had his old friend back, right before his life had swung out of control once that woman had appeared. For a year he had been yarning to hold his best friend again, if not as a lover, then only as a friend was fine too.

That joyous feeling was mutual. Just hugging Jonghyun had for some unexplainable reason made Dongho happier than ever. The dearest person in his life, the only one he could trust was only an arms reach away.

Dongho hugged him tightly, as tight as he could. A his singsong voice hummed over Jonghyuns tall shoulder, “Hey, Jonghyun? No matter what happens, lets just stay together from now on, right?”

The other man tried to turn in bed, look Dongho in the eyes in full to see if he was being serious about saying such a thing. “Huh?” A sound of confusion rolled over his lips.

Dongho had to continue, “I meant to say that—even if we find her, I want to stay by your side.” His arms slightly loosened, he was nervous.

If Jonghyun could he wished to grow old along side this man, in his life he had wanted no one better than his friend – his once smiling and cheerful best friend that was gradually coming back to him.

After it had been shared, the tallest wanted to curse at how perfect this was. His heart was beating out of place and eyes became clouded darting around the room viewing objects and shapes in short distance. 

“Wh—why?” He wished to know how Dongho could be so kind to him.

The next moment Jonghyun heard a noise, a small marble sound of jiggling inside of something hollow. He couldn’t look back to see what it had been, as Dongho occupied his shoulder. It had sounded suspiciously close to the sound of a shaking pill container, and he specifically remembered noticing that one had gone missing from the bathroom cabinet this morning.

Jonghyun was trying to figure out how it could have gotten here and in Donghos possession, but before he could even ask, the other had shifted out of position to out of nowhere kiss him.

Jonghyun was surprised, but he didn’t complain when Donghos arms hooked around the back of his head and neck to effectively deepen the random act. Jonghyun gladly gulped down on the slow, gentle kiss, parting his lips and folding them against Donghos.

The two soon fought for good angles, breaths escaping from one another’s mouths like pouring clouds of steam. In middle of it, Jonghyun noticed something hard in Donghos mouth slick against his tongue. The other was not allowing him to chew it, moving it even further across the wet floor of Jonghyuns tongue. But the other boy could finally make out the shape, a tiny rounded pill had been inserted in him without his knowledge.

The medicine bottle for his treatment was still shaking somewhere on the mattress of Jonghyuns bed guilty. Dongho had finally found a way to force feed them to the other that did not involve hurting him in the process.

Jonghyun obediently swallowed it just to please his friend, yet now he was starting to realize that the kiss had been nothing more than just a sly trick to get him to take his meds. In disappointment, he waited for Dongho to stop kissing him at any moment now, but to his surprise it didn’t end.

The other only focused the embrace, rolling on top of Jonghyun into a more empowering position for himself to instead reward his friend for taking that pill. Jonghyun landed his hands in place holding up the wide chest of the other man, his fingers could feel the muscles under his shirt tense to his palm.

“You prick.” The tallest tried to speak by arching his head back, but his friends lips stood in the way, parted but still lightly brushing up against his. “Sorry, I had to.” The other hushed him, even daring to give him a bastardly smile as if he was proud of it.

“I could have choked to death you know?” Jonghyun whined, squirming underneath his friend to push him off out of spite.

“Then I would revive you.” Dongho joked, laughing louder this time. Jonghyuns earlobes tickled and blushed hearing that high pitched laughter, out of everything he missed hearing it the most.

Just by watching the other mans face alone Jonghyun was still unable tell the one thing he wished to know the most – was this actually for real, did Dongho suddenly like him back? 

The mere thought of that filled him with such joy. Although truth be told, the other really didn’t have a clue about it either. Dongho figured that if he was doing this, then it meant that he probably did. Right now, Dongho could simply could not stop to try and go over his own feelings in the presence of Jonghyun, who was so much more important than anything else to him. His best friend meant the whole world to him, literally.

“What are we really now, Dongho?” Jonghyun had the same question in mind as the other. “Best friends?” Dongho joked.

“You just kissed me, jackass.” Jonghyun didn’t find it funny, the idea of being played didn’t sit well with him.

Right then Jonghyun yelped in distress. Dongho had surprised him with a sudden kiss to the cheek, and after Dongho showed him a proud, teasing grin, “Yeah, so what about it?”

Jonghyun then made what seemed like the cutest angry pout ever to Dongho, scrolling his eyes to the side to look anywhere else, but this guy. Maybe Dongho was starting to act like his old self, his old annoying immature self that is.

The shortest had grinned some more, purposely climbing into Jonghyuns vision to regain his attention until the other guy had protectively winced his eyes closed.

In his pretend sleep, Jonghyun could feel precious small pecks and loving kisses raining down on him from above, hitting his nose, cheeks and even eyelids, all trying to wake him back up. Like this, nothing else seemed real anymore, just him and Dongho who were both stuck in the time that had gone slow.

 

A new morning had come and the street birds outside sang high, their croaking calls could be heard over the rusty, shining rooftops from afar. 

The snow outside had been made into small piles of mass clinging to corners of buildings trying to survive as the concrete ground continued to heat under the rays of the suns shine.

Dongho had already sat up in bed with his chest bare, proudly presenting his tattoos on top of his built muscle to the whole world this morning. 

Jonghyun slept similarly, his lower half hidden under a blanket while his top had only remained dressed in an undershirt. Occasionally his shoulder blades would ghost out from his skin as his chest raised to breathe under him.

The shortest woke the other by mindlessly clicking his lighter open and closed while trying to decide if he should go for a smoke right now, or perhaps might as well just quit. The fumes were bad for Jonghyuns lungs, and the boy was already sick.

Dongho did not remember why he had even started to do it in the first place. Perhaps he had at one point seen it as a way to rebel against something out there after having his heart stomped on by two people closest to him.

But as it turns out, only one of them had truly been the evil one. Although, truth be told that he still held a small grudge towards Jonghyun who could have just told him the truth, but then again, if he ever did Dongho would have not believed it anyways.

“Yo.” Dongho smiled at the other boy who’s morning hair resembled more of an unfinished birds nest, not that his own looked any better himself today.

Jonghyun raised to sit on his elbows, blinking his eyes trying to confirm that Dongho was really there, sitting up and giving him the cheekiest of smiles. “Hi.” He spoke so cutely in this little and shy voice, that Donghos cheeks ran with red on their own.

Kangs fingers had reached towards the other on their own, combing the stray strands hiding Jonghyuns pretty permanently sulking eyes, so he could see them clearly. This was probably the first time he had properly seen Jonghyuns thick angry eyebrows since he had arrived.

However, Jonghyun soon decided to smack away his affectionate touching, as the jerk had began to weirdly pet his brows apart with his thumbs. Dongho swore he would get to those fuzzy bastards later one way or another.

The two men remained silent in awkwardness, blushing and smiling down away from one another, before breaking into a fit of strange giggles. It was a really long morning, but the panic to still get out of bed since they actually had a job to do kicked in soon.

 

Jonghyun would tap his fingers on top a bar counter in boredom, eyes shifting to Dongho who was in middle of speaking to yet another local business owner and showing them the photos of the missing woman, before their conversation would be interrupted by Jonghyuns shameless yawn. Nothing noteworthy had happened in these past few days in between.

Dongho grinned at him from the corner of his lips, and nervously sped up the conversation for the sake of his friend, who had been waiting on him for ages now.

These days they still had seriously no luck and it seemed like they had already gone to half of the services in town, even going as far to trespass into private properties in hopes to have a disorientated Kyulkyung show up hiding in some hidden crevice.

Jonghyun had talked to everyone he knew, but it was as if that woman had never even existed. They both now feared going to the police, thinking if they were notified about the CCTV footage, then the cops would perhaps even confiscate it. It was the only proof they had.

Jonghyun didn’t believe the cop theory though, he had no reason to think that all cops in a small town like this could be corrupt. Dongho was paranoid.

However, even with that little of proof, they continued to search for her, and at this point, it was already close to being two months by now. Neither of them wanted to be the first one to say it out loud, but at this point they were looking for her either as dead or alive.

 

After another long journey, Jonghyun and Dongho were just now returning to their shared home, and they just so happened to run into the old woman living downstairs. She was taking the slowest of steps down the stairway with her dog. Jonghyun looked surprised to see her again, her leg looked much better.

Her pet dog was this ugly small thing, no bigger than a terrier with dark curly hairs that went over its eyes. Only the red panting tongue stood out from its coal coloured fur. The dog welcome them with a loud bark that vibrated the walls of the building from top to bottom inside of the hallow staircase. Unpleasant to the ears.

“Oh good day, Jonghyun.” The old lady held her dog from running by a short leash, her bony, pale fingers doing their best to hold.

Jonghyun didn’t even get to respond politely, let alone open his mouth before the other idiot was already whipping out his phone to show the poor woman the missing persons picture on the screen as well.

The tallest clicked his tongue, “Dongho, seriously. Your manners?” He scolded the other male, who felt like he didn’t have much to apologize for. 

“I am sorry ma’am, It’s really important.” Kang stared at his phone while shoving it to the stranger. “Have you perhaps seen this woman, she had been last seen around here two months ago?” Dongho told the elder, while Jonghyun clicked his tongue some more, totally annoyed.

The old woman focused her watery eyes on the bright screen, observing the hooded figure closely until her verdict. 

She quickly nodded, shaking her finger at the screen, “I think yes, I’ve have seen this one before.”

Jonghyun could hardly believe his ears. He thought that maybe the senior had just seen it wrong, but no, she insisted her story was right. The woman was always wary of any stranger that came in, during the winter, when the pathways had not been cleared from the ice, she had not much to do aside from sitting at her window and looking out to see who would pass by.

Dongho immediately shot his eyes over to Jonghyun as they were on fire, his face became stern and stiff and ears became sharp to listen to the rest of the claim.

“I saw her right here.” The woman slightly lifted her cane to point it at a specific point on the other end of the staircase below.

“What was she here for, what did she do?” Dongho aggressively cut in for more information, not caring about using formal speech, just rushing to get the facts quicker.

Back on that day, the woman recalled hearing someone speaking in the stairway corridor, two arguing voices on the floor above hers. At first the elderly woman didn’t see it as anything particularly odd near Jonghyuns apartment door, but after the guests were coming back down the steps, she just so happened to be taking her dog out at the same time.

Two women headed down right from the young mans apartment, she had supposed Kim Jonghyun was at home at the time, as she had hear the water running upstairs. That was before he ended up flooding her ceiling later the same day.

The two strangers came stomping down the steps, almost running head first into the old woman, they looked distraught. “Do you need any help?” The lady worried.

“No! We will be fine! Thank you!” The two took off without notice and as the old woman left the apartment shortly after them, she still got to see a glimpse of the car the two strangers drove.

A red blanket had been thrown behind the back seats, curled up at the rear window. It was a strange detail to take note of, but somehow the bright color is what she could recall the most.

Two months ago she was able to walk longer distances, and without the help of the cane. Until that very same day, after her dog had began for some unruly reason dragging her too fast during a walk almost running off the leash.

Her dog must of heard something in the distance back then, and she thought she had heard it too, a loud pang noise coming straight from the far woods. The dog began dragging the woman off her normal walking path and towards the sound of that noise.

The edge of the town was a steep forest cliff, with rotting leaves and snow making the steps downwards impossibly slippery. It felt like the dog had been pulling her deeper and deeper off the path for ages, she even looked back, but her vision would not even show that far.

Telling her dog to calm down was no use, after dozen long minutes of running, pulling and holding, her legs soon began to feel sore, but just before she was about to lose all her strength trying to hold the dog back, just like that, it had stopped trashing scared by something in the distance.

Voices spread across the forest, calling out and arguing with one another, figures moved about behind the thick of the trees.

The woman looked to see down below and with focus saw two cars at the bottom of the hill, one of which had that red blanket packed away in the back from earlier. She didn’t know what exactly she was seeing, surely it was weird seeing cars group up at the bottom far into the forest like that.

The woman felt immense pain in her joints, like she could fall and minute and that is what had worried her the most to even be able think straight in that moment aside from the pain. Thus she left the area quickly, looking for someone to help her sit down and see if she needed a medic.

The elderly woman from the downstairs had concluded her account the best she could leaving the two men absolutely puzzled, more so than they had been originally, yet hungry for answers.

Dongho cut in again, his voice full of demand, “Where did you see those cars?”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 200 hits .....pogchamp

Dongho was back on the road again, however this time in more of a rush than ever, traveling with Jonghyun by his side to the place where Kyulkyungs car had been ultimately compromised. 

To Jonghyun, something felt off about this already, it was as if they were heading head on into danger, Dongho could feel it too. But at the same time the two were too eager to find the truth, no matter what they might find in that forgotten forest.

The shortest would occasionally glance back at his friend while driving to show him that he wasn’t mad at him for all of this, although he did place some blame on the man.

It showed when he spoke, “She had reached you, and made it to your apartment on that day.” Dongho spoke, full of bitterness for the world. “I know.” Jonghyun understood.

“Where were you? How could you not know she was there?” Dongho asked again, eyes fixed on the bumpy road ahead leading up to that cursed forest trail that they had been going past everyday all this time.

“Probably out, or sleeping.” Jonghyun tried, but he could not remember what he had done on that day at all. It was really important though, if he had let Kyulkyung in, then perhaps she would be safe now instead of missing.

The agitated Dongho didn’t like that lame answer, but right now he didn’t let it get to him too hard. He took a few seconds to massage his temples first and then started to talk again, “Let’s just finish this off okay?”

“Whatever it is that we might find there, we must put an end to this.” He swore.

“How do you know that it’s the end?” Jonghyun asked the other man, his face ridden with the same worry to match Kangs.

“I have this terrible, terrible gut feeling.” Dongho described the best what he felt, gliding one of his hands off the wheel to hold onto his stomach that had clenched up into knots. Jonghyun followed that hand with his eyes, quickly zoning out.

Soon the car came to a grinding halt, stopping at an off-road mud road too tight in-between the trees for a car to comfortably drive through further, likening it to more of a hiking trail. This area was close to that stream that ran through the woods, one they had previously abandoned not wishing to make it across.

They felt so absolutely useless, sitting under the looming, creaking trees above their heads. This spot wasn’t even that far from their home in the first place, they had wasted so much time by going around.

Jonghyun hopped out second, his torn boots hitting the mud under Donghos jeep. The other man already walked ahead, hoping to see at least something down into the dark woods.

Dongho stared back to review the other man, making sure that Jonghyun did not feel as guilty as he did, because damn he felt like shit right now. Absolutely hopeless.

The other man had since squat to the ground, looking at something budge from the mud. Thick layer of wet dirt soil formed a puddle where the melted winter snow had previously been.

He didn’t know if his eyes were playing some trick on him – but something had just shined from the mud. The next moment Jonghyun fished something out of it and held it up in his fingers as he showed it to Dongho from afar.

He spoke, “Bullet rounds.”

“Fuck.” Dongho hissed, stomping his foot down in rage, “This is a coincidence right? Please tell me?” He begged, trying to think that those shells had belonged to just hunters shooting at some deer.

Jonghyun shook and lowered his head, he acted composed and collected knowing that yelling and arguing wouldn’t help them at this point. “I don’t know.” He stood.

Only one way to find out – Dongho gulped a painful lump of grief down his throat looking at where the path lead down this hill to that spot they had been warned of. The two began to slowly walk down on foot, taking careful steps not to slip and fall.

Jonghyun caught the hand of his partner when his feet had almost slid wide apart. “Be careful.” Donghos grip was ice cold, a cloud of steam poured from his dry, purple lips as he spoke.

Wet fallen leaves crunched under their steps when they neared a flat area at the very middle of the bottom. This must have been the place the old lady from downstairs had described, it was at the bottom of the creek with a slippery slope leading down to it, so it had to be.

They viewed the surroundings, slowly stomping over bushes and fallen branches in their way. Their eyes passed torn trees, trunks with still fresh and gaping scratches on them, as if something big had came tumbling down the hill from up there.

Dongho reviewed one such tree, folding the peeling skin away from the scar to reveal color embedded in the trunk of the tree – metal fragments.

He concluded that the car was being chased down by perhaps another car, and if the old lady was correct, she had see two cars down at the bottom, confirming the theory. The attackers had fired rounds at the car, obviously with harmful intent, so to flee, it ended up running off course all the way down here until it possibly broke down from the fall and then became a wreck.

“Dongho?” Jonghyun worried for him since he had trailed off, the shortest rushed back up to him to not go too far, “I’m right here.” He apologized.

It wasn’t particularly shown well on Jonghyuns face, but he was scared shitless being out here. His fingers poked out from his long sleeves, trembling and appeared as white from loss of color. It looked like he could soon faint. Dongho wanted to hurry this up, for him.

Misplaced cliff rocks were also thrown about in all directions. It all gave away and lead them to the location of what appeared to be a car crash site. 

Naturally the car here was long gone, not even tire marks had been left after the rain and the snow since last month.

Jonghyun suddenly stalled, making Dongho stop too and look back at the boy in eorry. His face was filled with horror and it scared the other too. “Kang, look.”

The tallest stared directly at a bald patch of mud near the site of crash, misplaced soil on top as if someone had been digging there through the snow. Dongho blinked his eyes non stop, the veins in his temples now throbbing.

With slow, anxious strps Dongho was the first one to walk up to it, and then around it. It was a tiny hole in the ground covered up by a thin mushy layer of dirt from elsewhere. Jonghyun didn’t dare to go near it, he feared knowing what it might be, what might become of them if they uncover it.

For a second, he even wanted to beg Dongho to back off and just leave it be. All of this effort, for yet another tragedy in his life, Dongho did not deserve it. Despite it, he still pitched forward to stand his absolute nearest from above.

The next second Dongho just simply got down and started digging on his own with his raw fingers until they were covered in dark soil. He clawed at the spot, and soon hesitantly Jonghyun joined him to copy his digging, while they uncovered more and more together.

That was until Jonghyun felt something in the dirt, his hands had stopped and Donghos eyes shot to his blank expression. In disbelief, he pushed the boy out of the way to take his spot, shoving him so hard that Jonghyun actually fell on his palms and knees far away from where he had been kneeling.

Like a caged animal, Dongho groaned and pant through his tightly clenched teeth until his fingers stopped at what appeared to be a bag of black plastic, buried in a shallow grave.

“No. No, it can’t be.” Dongho begged for it not to be true. 

It had to be a trick, one of Kyulkyungs cruel lies. There was no way Kyulkyung was trapped in that bag. She could never just die in a place like this so far from home, this simply was not true.

Without a second though he had teared it open, in result letting out the most foul smell imaginable – smell of a rapidly decaying body. If once before they had no idea what a decomposing body left out in the spring smelled like, then they certainly did now.

It was becoming too real. Everything was happening so fast now like reality around them had been somehow speed up. The pounding of the heart felt like loud war drums playing in the distance.

At first Dongho fell back from the stench, but then realizing what he had come up upon Donghos mouth had fallen open, the sound that came from it was unintelligible, a cross between a growl and a whimper. Tears were already welling up in the corners of his eyes.

She had been murdered, Kyulkyung had been actually dead all along.

Jonghyun laid on the ground and just watched his friend break to pieces, covering his angry eyes with the mud soiled and bruised hands he had gotten after digging. He couldn’t do anything to help.

Desperate, Jonghyun got up and quickly ran to hug the other, this time Dongho did not push him back. His previous angry kicking and squirming was all due the shock, so Jonghyun had forgiven it.

Slow pats consoled Donghos back, as his friends shaking hand went back and forth in calming circles, while his own curled back twitched and shook unable to find any rest. Donghos sniffles became muffled inside of Jonghyuns jacket.

This was so unfair. There was nothing they could do, they were both left clueless and miserable, and perhaps now they were stuck forever not knowing what had happened to her, or who did this.

 

Dongho sat in the middle of row of chairs inside the local police station, his winter jacket had been just thrown over his shoulders to keep him semi warm, sights stuck to the ground. 

He stared at nothing with red-rimmed, horribly bloodshot eyes. The veins in his temples were still throbbing, and red crescents where his fingernails had dug into the palms of his hands peeked from underneath his mud dirtied sleeves.

Jonghyun stomped his two feet in front of him where his eyes had been pointed at for this whole time, handing out a cup of coffee that he had retrieved from a machine nearby.

The other man looked up, his eyebrows arched angry, but the rage he had before had now somewhat died down by now. Dongho was somewhat coping, after all, they had already predicted that Kyulkyung might not have ended up safe and sound after way over just a month of being missing.

After successfully passing away the coffee, Jonghyun landed in the seat beside him. The two watched together as the department workers fulfilled their duties in the background, running around like little panicked ants.

“How are you feeling now?” Jonghyun asked his numbed down friend, who held the drink to warm his hands and never actually took take sip. Even though the guy usually loved coffee.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.” The short man wasn’t able to say much while still in shock. It wasn’t severe enough for him to head straight to hospital, he could manage, Dongho told himself he would stay to see it all through.

But he never got to see the body, they would absolutely not let him even when he demanded it. She was instead identified by the fabrics of clothing she had been wearing and some matching jewelry.

The investigators were unable to determine the true cause of death yet, considering the impact of the car crash, or suffocation from being buried, or those stray flying bullets. The most likely cause was currently being placed on the last one, as both entry and exit wounds allegedly existed on the body.

In his state of denial Dongho was starting to say weird things, “It wasn’t her was it? It couldn’t be her.” He mumbled, looking down into his foamy dark drink.

Those hopeful string words endlessly echoed in Jonghyuns head, but he knew that the guy was only grasping at straws now, “Dongho, she was out there for a really long time, you could not have—” He stopped himself.

The layer of snow would be cold enough to preserve at least some of the recognizable features, but she had been buried deeper beneath the soil. So with snow on top, it would create an effect of insulation, keeping the ground underneath warm enough for bacteria to thrive.

Dongho hissed, “I don’t want to think about that.” He still remembered that awful, rancid smell that he thought now he would never be able to forget, and even remembering made him want to gag.

A voice of a young police officer nearby called Dongho to follow him for questioning. The two had decided to tell the cops everything about their own investigation, all aside from the video tapes they had stolen.

“See you soon.” Dongho handed back his cup and followed the other man inside another room where the questioning happened. “Take care.” Jonghyun replied.

The cop investigating him was a fairly young man, more or less around his own age, slightly shorter than him. In a soft, sniffling voice he apologized for wearing a medical face mask in front of the witness. Dongho understood, it wasn’t unlikely for anyone in this shitty wet weather to catch something nasty. 

That bug eyed look on the cops face had instantly reminded Dongho that he had actually somehow already seen this bastard somewhere in this same station once before. That day when Kang had first come in to report the scrapped car, but instead got kicked out, this jerk had been sitting silent eavesdropping from behind the counter.

While in questioning, numerous times Dongho called out negligence of police who had been in charge of handing the initial investigation, as perhaps due to their failure and slow rate of investigation, this had directly turned from missing persons case into a homicide case. 

Somehow the young cop agreed with Dongho, as in, he did find it strange, however the grieving man did not see the cop write any of that down in his notes. The guy was probably just trying to stay out of it and save his own ass and keep his job.

The same cop would continue to ask him various questions, like what had he been doing up until finding the body, his personal relation to the missing person, and so on. As if he was going down a dull list and just filling out blank answers, but Dongho could still not glance to see what exactly and how much of all that the cop was actually taking down either.

The officer folded up his notes, reaching for another case file on his table and taking out something from inside, “They told me to give this to you.” The man handed the other him a small zip lock bag with a single ring in it, the engagement ring Kyulkyung still wore to match Dongho.

The short male just stared at it with his face fully static, refusing to take it as if somehow symbolized him admitting to himself that woman was truly dead. “Who told you to give this to me?” He shot his face to the wide eyed cop.

The cop spoke to reinstate him, understanding that after such a tragedy a person might act aggressive or dismissive towards the investigators. He told Kang to remain calm and comply to help the case move forward easier. 

Dongho didn’t believe these guys one bit, but the ring sat right there on the table as the unavoidable truth. The final conclusion to Kyulkyungs disappearance.

Dongho stormed back to Jonghyun waiting outside, his eyes red and fists clenched white. Jonghyun saw the guy come at him almost in tunnel vision, expecting his friend to take his anger out on him by yelling or shoving him again. Although instead, he did quite the opposite. As soon as Jonghyun had stood from his seat, the bigger guy just ran to hug him hiding his face deep in the crook of the tall boys neck.

Any minute they would take his friend away from him too to ask him the same questions, and Dongho could in fact already hear someone approach their hug from behind him.

“Can we have you step in for questioning, Kim Jonghyun?” The same cop from before informed the man that it was his turn.

“Don’t go, don’t go.” Dongho sniffled into his shoulder fearing being left alone again. In that tight fist he had balled up for a punch hid that damn ring that now meant nothing to him once the woman meant to be wearing it was dead.

“I’ll be back soon, okay?” Jonghyun had to practically pull himself away from the defeated Dongho. He told his friend that he would return in a minute and then they would head home together. It sounded nice, Kang wished to go home.

When next up inside the investigation room, first thing Jonghyun noticed was that his investigator was clearly a different guy than the one that had just questioned Dongho. This guy was older, definitely a senior officer working here. He had this mean look on his face, eyes following him walk in after the door closed shut behind Jonghyun.

The mans skin on his face looked thick, almost hard to the point the lines on his forehead looked like deep cracks. The hairs in his beard had grayed, but were neatly trimmed to their shortest.

“Sit.” The cop instructed, his voice anything but nice and compassionate towards a grieving man.

No other people were present in the same room anymore, it was just them and thus it was uncomfortable for Jonghyun. He had expected to be investigated in a different room as a victim, but this was more of a holding cell for a criminal questioning.

A large mirror scaled one of the rooms walls, Jonghyun had already figured that people would probably be standing on the other side of it, for whatever reason watching.

Jonghyun did as told without asking his own questions back much, although the whole time while being questioned he was just trying to figure out why the investigators had switched.

The questioning ended quickly, but he felt that he hadn’t even said all he knew yet. The old man looked uninterested in his claims, supporting his jaw under his arm set out on the table by his elbow.

“What about the other person?” Jonghyun leaned forwards across the desk demanding to know before he was sent back, “I’m positive there had to be two passengers.”

“How come?” The cop asked him in an almost sarcastic tone, like he was mocking Jonghyun for trying to meddle with the case. His eyes drooping down to his scribbled notes instead of Jonghyun. 

The tall boy fought to gain his attention, “My neighbor had seen two not just one woman at my apartment, the same two would then leave together in the car.”

The cop replied in a robotic tone, lazily shorthand writing it down into his own notes looking like he barely cared about this case actually ever getting solved. “Then we will have to interview them to confirm.” He informed.

Despite Jonghyuns placed suspicions, the police man was indeed really powerless to prove anything as of yet, especially since now that most of the evidence had been disposed of due to the polices negligence, which of course the old and bitter cop wasn’t willing to admit.

Jonghyun namedropped the name of the restaurant that he was sure had the footage of the two women, while he was unable to hand in the files in his own possession knowing that it could land himself in trouble. The officer again wrote down the business and told Jonghyun he was finally free to go. He could only hope that he had made the right choice with that.

A while later, clumsily while trying to stay hidden from behind a wall separating the lobby from the interrogation rooms, spied the same young cop from before. He was rather comically trying to act sneaky when watching the two witnesses storming out of the police station.

The guy recognized one of the two, Jonghyun and him had gone to same primary school two grades above him as this was a pretty small town and all.

After losing their sight behind windows of a car, the short cop pulled down the bottom of his mask to pop out his nose which was in perfectly healthy color, not in line with his sniffling heard just a moment ago in questioning.

He jumped almost ten feet straight into air when someone standing behind him had placed a grip on his shoulder. Behind him was his senior officer, who was the main man in charge here, the same guy who had just sent Jonghyun out of interrogation.

“Congratulations on your promotion, Kwak.” The elder offered to shake the short boys hand, although the lines on his mean face showed no interest in the sudden announcement. 

It was quite obvious to everyone, but the very boy in question, that the senior officer only saw the rookie as something barely any better than a obedient lapdog that kissed ass of his superiors at every chance given. Kwak was cowardly and easily distracted at work, so in the eyes of the other officer, he was absolutely unfit to even be a cop.

Yet he seemed overjoyed, not knowing whether to accept the handshake first or do a ninety degree bow. The young cop had been waiting for so long to get a promotion, just so he could get moved to a more proper police facility and leave this shitty town behind.

“You will be officially transferred to jurisdiction of Seoul by the end of this week.” The man spoke in a monotone voice, finally relieved to have this guy off his hands in this department.

Kwak became bug eyed once again, “Eh? This week, but that is a little too soon?—" The older man cut him off, “That is not everything, you are already assigned with a new task.”

The short boy was starting to get nervous, all of these undisclosed obligations where thrown at him right out of nowhere, “A task?” He stuttered. 

The older man began to stretch his neck to peek over the loud rookies shoulders to see if anyone had heard him just now, upset he called the guy to join him in his private office.

 

Dongho and Jonghyun had found a mourning spot at the same barbeque restaurant that they had been to before, both drinking heavily, sitting slouched and deep in thought over all that had happened.

There were so many unanswered questions that still needed to be answered, as in – who killed her, who was that other person, and mainly what was Kyulkyung trying to tell Jonghyun before she died.

Whenever Jonghyun now voiced his worries over it out loud to the other, Dongho promptly told him to just shut up. He didn’t want to think about it anymore, he was done.

“Lets just leave it be.” Dongho surprised the other. 

It was heartbreaking to see him like this, Dongho always had fighting spirit in him that would not allow him to give up easily, but now he had been so defeated, Kang had just decided to forget.

He mumbled under his nose, “The fact that she is dead won’t change.” Hearing that, Jonghyun jolted spine straight in his seat, “But, don’t you want to know who did it, don’t you want justice for her?”

Dongho was suddenly angry now, pointing a sharp finger at the other as if he was to poke an eye out with it, “You don’t think I don’t want all of those things, fucker?” 

He sighed, then continued, “Look at this mess, the police isn’t doing shit. At this rate we will never know who or why they did it.”

Sadly Jonghyun had to agree, the whole police station looked like a mess. Everyone became busy, but still none of the investigators seemed like they even cared about some bones buried in the woods. Especially since Kyulkyung had no family that would seek justice for her or press charges against the investigators themselves for their malpractice.

Dongho raised his eyes, droopy and blinking out of sync with one another, his drunken voice yelled at Jonghyun for that frown on his face, “And you!” He pointed at Jonghyun directly, “Just come back to Seoul with me.”

“W-what?” Jonghyun was taken aback, because that had came literally out of nowhere.

“I’m serious. Let’s both move in together find you some wage slave job to help pay off your debts.” Dongho argued back, his tone suddenly deep and formal to emphasize how seriously he meant it.

Dongho added, “It would be good to live closer to a hospital too.” His voice had lowered mentioning this specific part.

The face on Jonghyun changed that instant, “Is this some kind of an elaborate trick just to get me to see a doctor?” Jonghyun sighed, unlocking Donghos hidden motive.

“Maybe it is,” At least he was being honest, “But Jonghyun, you literally cough blood. Don’t tell me that shit ain’t something you should not get looked at?” He started speaking up again, acting up all determined and confident, with his chest pushed out.

Jonghyun sucked his own lips in, his mouth becoming just a thin wavy line that moved in place before letting out mean sounding words, “I told you it’s fine. It’s just chest cold, it comes and goes over time.”

The other man shook his head to disagree, no matter what it was, Dongho could not rest knowing that his best friend was sick and not even caring of it.

“You need to see a doctor, a proper doctor, a good doctor. I know you don’t want to, that’s why I am willing to do anything to make you do it.” Dongho vent quickly as if something was on fire.

Jonghyun became shy, clenching his fingers tight around the glass in his hand from anxiety, “I don’t know if I want to.” He hated change, he didn’t trust it.

Dongho knew the guy wouldn’t easily agree to anything. Jonghyun was timid and considerate, he felt more of an inconvenience to everyone. “Just leave it all behind, come with me.” The shortest insisted.

The same guy then drunkenly reached across the table, his drooping sleeves almost knocking their drinks over just so he could grab onto Jonghyun, “Give me your hand.” He ordered.

Jonghyuns eyes widened ten times, “Eh?” He watched his friend randomly fit the engagement ring of Donghos dead ex onto his finger, removing its previous meaning by doing so.

It somehow fit him perfectly. But of course it did, it had already been on his hand once before, back when he had agreed for Dongho to act out the entire surprise engagement on him for practice, to try out later on his actual girlfriend. For a second back then, Jonghyun had thought he was the one being surprise proposed to, which had led to a hilarious argument.

But now the new implication of the ring on his hand was blatantly obvious, Dongho wanted Jonghyun to remain with him. No, perhaps he needed him, and he needed him bad.

Jonghyun looked at the pretty ring, its crystal clear gem shining right back at him.“Dongho, I cannot accept this.” He spoke quickly fearing to be cut off, “I know how much it means to you an –“

Dongho tinned his lips, took Jonghyuns hand and folded into a fist, so that the ring could not be removed. “That’s why I want you to wear it, from now on I want it to represent us.” He swore, as a nervous line crowded across his forehead.

Jonghyun spoke with an awful stutter, eyes shaped like two shining dimes, “What about here, what about my home?”

Dongho spoke up loud, so loud in fact that the other customers in the restaurant had heard him, “Just throw away the fucking key away and lets go.” Jonghyun replied, in a small voice that trailed off, “To where?” 

Dongho didn’t know yet, as for now he only knew that he wanted to head towards a new different life – one filled with Jonghyun, and also one without Kyulkyung.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry... hehe


	13. Chapter 13

Dongho and Jonghyun rode the car late at night, a long highway was far ahead of them as they had set out for Seoul after everything was finally over.

A few days had passed since they had arranged everything before leaving that town for good. Dongho had gone back to Seoul first by himself, while Jonghyun had stayed and earned some spare coin by handing his apartment away to someone he knew in town.

Jonghyuns bags now stacked the back of Donghos car after the guy had returned to take him back to the capital, which Jonghyun hadn’t seen in over a year. Seoul was a fast and bright city, it continued to change with every passing minute, so perhaps when Jonghyun makes it back there it won’t even feel the same anymore.

He was nervous, clueless looking forward into the unknown future, one that tied him to Dongho. Although he secretly feared that at any given time Dongho would change his mind, lose his interest or find someone better. The scary thought made Jonghyuns heart shrivel up, he couldn’t stop thinking if doing this was a mistake or not.

Dongho felt the nervous wreck sitting in the passenger seat beside him from afar, those irregular, blocked breaths had quickly alerted his alert attention. To calm the guy, he reached to hold Jonghyuns hand while driving. Dongho neared it to his mouth first and then pressed the row of fingers to his lips breathing warm onto the ring his friend wore.

Jonghyun felt so odd wearing it, the pretty gem on his finger looked so out of place on him. He was scruffy and ragged, hair uncut and growing over his eyes, shirt badly patched around his sleeves, but now he was wearing a diamond to his hand on top of it.

If he felt unworthy already enough, the to make the matters worse he kept thinking how it had once belonged to Kyulkyung, he could not forget it.

Jonghyun politely asked for his hand back, his hand tightly squeezed into a fist. He reviewed the shiny ring once more. Kyulkyung even died wearing this, all of those unanswered questions would forever remain unsolved, like If she had broken up with Kang, then why did she still hold onto it after a whole year when she said she never loved him.

Because of her, both of their lives had turned out miserable, they had been forcefully turned against one another, and for what reason did she do it. But did it even matter anymore, he shrugged and Dongho overheard him sigh.

“Everything alright?” He asked the other, it was the same question he asked the quiet Jonghyun almost every thirty minutes.

It was nice having the guy check up on him constantly, showing that he cared, but at the same time Jonghyun felt disappointed in himself because his answer was always the same.

“I’ll manage.” He sulked, sharing the same static expression with Dongho staring right ahead on the dark quiet road, their pupils large to the sight of the bright car headlights ahead.

“Not only will you manage, but you will get through it. And I will do too.” Dongho made a small nod at the end as punctuation for his own speech.

Soon after it was said and he gave it some thought, Jonghyun started noticing more highway signs signaling place names near Seoul and his tired eyes lit up. He grew glued to the side window watching from a distance a glimmering sea of light emerge from behind the tall hills while the car swirled onto an even bigger highway overpass.

Other cars joined the turn, passing theirs on the road, Jonghyun had not seen this many cars on tbe same road all at once. Soon they were within the city limits, giant commercial signboards and neon lights welcomed them into the city. Night here felt like day, Seoul was buzzing even at night time.

It would be so hard for Jonghyun to get used to this, he knew. He had moved to his hometown because he liked quiet and dim, but this place was the opposite, it was everything that he had been hiding from.

Dongho took him to a part of the city Jonghyun had never known before, where tall apartment buildings with walls of glass overlooked the skyline and the balconies were large enough to even hold barbeque parties on them. 

Jonghyun was surprised when Dongho parked his car in an underground garage of one such building and then took him up by the elevator. This place was huge, it was like a penthouse – his new home.

Dongho quickly explained that he had originally bought the place for him and his future wife after their marriage. But then later, while still hoping that she’d come back to him one day, he had left the place empty and unfurnished while he himself lived elsewhere closer to where his work was. Naturally, the guy was still paying off a huge loan to even afford this place, his older sister, who had managed to marry herself into a rich family, had been sending money to him out of pity.

Donghos actual apartment wasn’t fit for two, this one however was located near a large city hospital and other useful services, the choice was made quickly, deciding that there was no point in keeping his old one across the city.

From the corner of his eye Jonghyun carefully watched the other man run his fingers across a keypad that would let them inside the new apartment itself, until Dongho had noticed the stare and stopped midway, his eyes also secretly shifting to the other.

He shamelessly covered the keypad with his palms just so Jonghyun could not see the password which was still set to Kyulkyungs birthday, but that bastard already knew, Dongho could see it in that pricks eyes.

“I’ll change it.” He murmured under his breath in shame, rushing in through the unlocked door before Jonghyun.

The stuffy room smell just whooshed right into Jonghyuns lungs as he had stepped in, the place had no air and it smelled similarly to the smell of old books. It was a strange place, tall empty white walls, large windows. There was no furniture and everything else been covered with a sheet of plastic. In a way it was so large and void it almost seemed a bit lonely here.

“Water should be working again, go check the tap.” Dongho instructed his friend, pointing him to the kitchen. Jonghyun made his way through the rooms that were dark without light just trying to break something.

Kitchen was the most furnished room in the apartment, Jonghyun counted counters, drawers, fridge, sink and even a stove. When Jonghyun pulled the tap like he had been told, the whole faucet throbbed as if it was growling and then water spewed out almost orange, giving off a very metallic scent before it began to run clear.

“What about the lights?” Jonghyun heard Dongho flicking a light switch on and off in every room, he came into the kitchen scratching the back of his head with the same idea.

“This place isn’t really finished yet.” He apologized, staring up into the drooping ceiling lamps that all had empty sockets, no bulbs in sight. 

Dongho was in such a rush he had forgotten to install a lot of stuff, most of his old belongings were still stuck in boxes as there were no shelves to put them. Jonghyun didn’t mind at all as long as it wasn’t cold and if there was running water.

“Its still nice.” Jonghyun shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t mean to flatter, but Dongho still made a pleased smile.

“You haven’t seen everything yet, come.” Dongho took him by the elbow and began to excitedly drag him through the hall to another room in the far back.

Before entering, Dongho placed his palm over his friends eyes, walking him in first and uncovering only when Jonghyun was facing into the right direction. The tallest tried to whine, warn Kang that it was scary like this, but suddenly he witnessed a flash of light when Donghos hand went.

The room they were in had another huge window, but this one didn’t face all the other high rise buildings like the other windows. The window opened to a downtown view of the district. For as far as the eye could see, Jonghyun saw buildings all shining in the night – flashing vivid colors, stream of passing cars and show windows glimmering with color in businesses down below.

“Woah.” Jonghyun stumbled a step back almost finding himself a bit dizzy not only from the city night lights, but probably also the building height. Dongho chuckled at him for it, while moving across the room to uncover a plastic sheet covering up what appeared to be a bed.

A bed – Jonghyuns face had made an involuntary grimace realizing this was the only piece of furniture Dongho had gotten for his apartment back when he had first got it. It was a huge one, for two people. Dongho caught Jonghyun staring straight at it and now he suddenly felt just as silly as he did back at the door when entering his ex’s birthday as his passcode. 

“Hey, nobody has ever used this one before.” He defended himself, clearing his friends suspicion. “I don’t really mind.” Jonghyun did a tiny cheer, sitting on the edge to see how bouncy the mattress was. 

It was dusty, but it didn’t feel all that bad, perhaps even better than the one Jonghyun had before this. This would make their bedroom.

The two ended up never exiting that room. Dongho had become busy being laid out like a log, sleeping on his side facing middle of the bed. He promised to himself that they would just decide what to do tomorrow, as their plans had only lead up to this far.

It appeared as Kang was in such a rush to drag Jonghyun out of that hellish town where his ex had gotten murdered, was in attempt to protect him from the same kind misfortune. Jonghyun was starting to feel way too important to him, he was the last thing Dongho had left, so the clung to the guy with his life.

Not far from him slept Jonghyun, but facing away from him, arms wrapped around something else other than him pressed to his chest. Dongho nudged his head up from his pillow in jealousy.

“You aren’t gonna let that bear go are you?” Dongho scolded the plush in a mild mannered way, as if the toy itself was at fault.

The other body flipped around to face his friend, the bear laid in the space in between the two men like a third wheel, “Why? He is mine.” Jonghyun hugged his treasure.

Dongho looked like he wanted to mention, “Actually, he is—” The shortest cut himself off noticing Jonghyun lovingly snuggle the toy to make him even more jealous. Donghos lips drew closed tight and eyes shot to the ceiling, “Nevermind.”

 

Their first night sleeping in the city wasn’t the greatest, because no matter how far they’d run, that wicked woman was haunting them even in both of their dreams like a curse. They were unable to find rest even days after the conclusion of their chase.

Jonghyuns dream was a flashback of an earlier time in his life, sometime when Dongho wasn’t dating Kyulkyung yet, but the trio had become as inseparable friends already.

It was close to midnight on that day, and the friends were still studying together. Kyulkyung sat on the floor leaning her back into a beanbag, so tired of reading that she had put her medical studies text book over her face to rest her eyes in the dark.

Jonghyun and Dongho were both laid out in the same single bed, also busy reading, taking notes and overall just trying to stay awake for as long as they could. However, it appeared that Jonghyun had lost the long fought battle first.

Dongho sneakily pointed Kyulkyung to their sleepy friend with his eyes, who’s head was continuously drooped down no matter how much strength he’d put into his neck, however the last of his willpower always made it go jolting back up.

The woman laughed at the sad sight, “Just let him go to bed already, he had been studying since before we had even started ourselves today.

Dongho snort, “If he goes to sleep that means I gotta go to sleep too.” This made Kyulkyung extend her neck and puckered her lips interested to hear why.

“Bastard needs to hug someone in his sleep otherwise he has nightmares.” The man explained, as he guided Jonghyuns shoulders to a pillow, they still had some resistance in them, “He’s seriously such a kid.”

The woman joked, with a big cheeky smile on her face, “Should I hug him to sleep for once?”

“Don’t be gross.” Dongho shuddered in pretend disgust, he could hardly stand being in the same bed with this loser himself. 

“I can still hear you guys.” Jonghyun spoke with his eyes closed, prompting the others to hold their snickering.

“Well,” The woman’s laughter had ceased, “I should get going then too.” She suddenly rushed, remembering how late it was and how she would probably end up missing the last bus.

“It’s too late, you should just stay over.” Dongho worried, but she instead became even more nervous. Her hands rummaged inside of her book bag trying to fit all the books back inside. “No I can’t. I need to be ready for classes early.” She apologized a lot.

While going through her bag, she would accidentally spill something from it, it was hard and hit the floor with a thud. Kyulkyung stared in confusion at a misplaced photo camera that was on the room floor.

Dongho instantly noticed the expensive object, “A camera? I didn’t know you take photos?” She chuckled in her defense, “Uh, not really. I just began doing it!” Dongho was impressed.

To present, she placed her eye to the camera, aiming it at Dongho on the bed, but her eyes shot away realizing the picture was for some reason black. “The cap.” Kang began to laugh and she immediately had joined him.

As soon as Kyulkyung was gone it was just Jonghyun and Dongho alone, sharing the only bed they owned. The shortest was a heavy sleeper, so he did not at all mind his best friends tight, protective hugs in his sleep, even if he slept way too close next to him. Thus Jonghyun slept resting his head on Donghos chest, his eyes wide open staring into the dark thinking about things that bothered him the most.

The man could tell his friend already had a thing for Kyulkyung, even before Dongho had realized it for himself. Besides, although all of them were good friends, the woman had always been closer with Dongho. Jonghyun was feeling left out and powerless seeing his small fears of losing the guy he liked to someone else, someone way better than him, come true.

He raised his chin to trail the features of Donghos handsome sleeping face with his eyes. Jonghyun felt so unlucky to have fallen for his best friend, because he knew the guy so well to be able to predict that Dongho would never be able to see him in any way other than a friend. If he told him, it would make it weird and possibly even break them apart now that Kyulkyung was here for Dongho.

Jonghyun arched himself up hovering above his friend. The tall man was so pitiful, not knowing what to do with himself because what he felt was already so strong it would never die down as long as he stayed by Kangs side.

In sorrow, the tallest had lost his mind for a second staring at Donghos still, calm face. His curled eyelashes were twitching in his sleep, low breaths raising in his chest. 

Jonghyun gently put his palm over his friends lips holding it down for only a few moments, and then released it to press his same hand over own mouth pretending what it would be like kissing him for real. But it didn’t feel right, in fact It felt so bad, so horrible, that he wished he would just disappear of both shame and grief. Jonghyun dropped his head back into his pillow wincing his eyes shut.

 

Jonghyun woke up from his old flashback and was put right back into the fast present. It was morning already, light poured in from the huge window, sunlight warming his back as he had sat.

He saw Dongho lonely sitting on the edge of the bed, slouched over and his face hidden in his hands. He was acting weird today, like he had something troubling in his mind too.

“Dongho?” Jonghyun called out the man by his name, but he turned around late, not noticing that his friend had been awake. He nodded his chin at his friend, “Oh? You’re actually awake.”

“What does that mean?” Jonghyun raised a strange brow. “Well,” Dongho had decided to come clean about something. “You talk when you sleep sometimes, its really scary.”

Jonghyun could remember being once told that before, “What do I say?” He asked the other for the second time.

“You would cry out my name, as if you were begging for help.” The other man worried, “I was so freaked out the first time I heard it, on the night I came to your house.”

Dongho noticed his friend bite his lip and look away embarrassed and began to chuckle, “You stopped doing it after a while,” His smile quickly went, “But last night you did it again.”

They didn’t have to think hard to figure out what had caused it yesterday. Even after moving away so far from the traumatic event back in Jonghyuns hometown, it had still followed them all the way to here.

After a moment of pondering, Jonghyun sat on the same edge lining up with his friend. The guy still looked troubled enough though, something else was bothering and Jonghyun made an out loud guess.

Jonghyun asked, “Did you dream about her too?” The other nodded, “I kept having nightmares all night. I felt as I was in that bag, being buried alive and unable to claw my way out.” He spoke with a mortified look.

Dongho sighed, “Even if she wasn’t a good person, she didn’t deserve to die like that, nobody does.”

The man looked at his friend who was silent, looking guilty beside him. Dongho already knew what Jonghyun thought about this – that he should be hating Kyulkyung instead, because she had ruined his life. He tried to, but the unsolved mystery of her death could not make his stop thinking about it.

The shortest answered to his friend even if he never spoke his thoughts out loud, “I can’t fully condemn her If I don’t know her reasons for it, am I too naïve?”

“No, you aren’t wrong.” Jonghyun immediately agreed, “Even if she screwed us over, I still want to know what happened, and maybe it would shine light on why she did that to us.”

Dongho turned to his friend as if he was in shock, combing the bangs out of Jonghyuns eyes to see if they were even open and he was not just sleep talking some nonsense.

“You want to?” Dongho had to ask, as before he had assumed Jonghyun never wanted to have anything to do with that woman to begin with.

Absolutely, Jonghyun was being serious now, if they seriously left this whole mystery as is, then they would never find peace, “We should continue to investigate this to find out more.”

“What is there left to investigate? We are in the city now.” Dongho disagreed with his own idea.

“Exactly, there might still be clues left back here.” There was no pause in-between Donghos words and Jonghyuns. The tallest insisted, “Something here that might point us to why she had gone all the way out to find me.” 

The response he got was a sigh, Dongho supposed that if Jonghyun supported then he had no reason not to look for clues, but at the same time he feared hurting his friend, or make it seem like he still cared about that woman more than he cared about Jonghyun.

Dongho dropped his top half backwards into the bed and winced his eyes shut to have a rest, angry eyebrows crowding in the middle of his forehead. “Fine.” He pushed himself to get back up in a minute.

 

Unsurprisingly, the lonely streets of Seoul ended up being just as cold as they were back in hometown, Jonghyun had no idea why he had originally expected for it to be any different than that.

The snow had gone away, revealing unpleasant color of grass hugging the concrete walkways. An alley of tall trees clawed their leafless branches back at the wind above Jonghyuns head as he trailed that path. The wood was creaking and raining rare droplets of wet on the back of his shoulders.

With slow steps Jonghyun moved along side of Dongho, the two were supposedly catching some fresh air, or at least that guy had forced the tallest to do it. The fresh air was better for Jonghyuns lungs, he enforced.

Unlike his own words, Donghos body could barely stand the cold though. He hissed at how tight his fist had been clenched, yet his fingers were still freezing off either way. Jonghyun saw it and made the brave move to hold his friends hand for warmth.

The two had held hands before as besties, but it was different now, a lot different. Kang went from freezing to sweating buckets feeling Jonghyuns thumb rub against his own. Thus he instinctively pulled away instead of dealing with his own emotions like a man should.

Jonghyun stopped his walk, “You are cold.” He spoke in a deeply hurt voice. “It’s not that.” Dongho felt uncomfortable to say it, especially in a public park.

Agitated, Jonghyun shook his shoulders and let a large sigh out through his nostrils. He really didn’t understand the guy at all. The shortest glanced up from his own shoes as his friend would remove his own scarf to instead put it over Dongho as a compromise, a way for him to stay warm in another way instead of hand holding. 

Dongho became stuck in position when Jonghyuns hands had gone on the either side of his head, face pulled up close, in order to tie the scarf. In that weird moment, Jonghyun caught his odd stare and his fingertips became weak realizing how close they were to one another right now. The time had truly stopped.

Jonghyun quickly resumed fixing the scarf on his friend and before departing, he would surprise the other by leaning in to hold his cheeks and then reached to kiss Donghos forehead. Jonghyuns eyes had fluttered shut in the act.

The second was short, too short. Jonghyun had already stepped back and removed his pleasant touch from the other, after that Dongho felt like he had become a mess – big, red, mushy mess - and there was nowhere to hide his face.

He had originally wished to stop his sickly friend, because Jonghyun probably needed that scarf a lot more, but now that was made no longer possible. The two continued to walk, Donghos new scarf high up over his dumb blushing nose.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> unrelated to this update but i saw someone post some pretty nice edits of my bedeviled mermaid fic on twt earlier. thank you. very cool.

Even though the two men had known Kyulkyung for quite some time, they realized that nothing much was known much about the girl aside from the obvious. She was an exceeding student and absolutely obsessed with her studies to the point she would rather stay at home studying over than weekend than to contact anyone on the outside, and for someone like her to suddenly leave all of it behind and go on the run – it made no sense.

Because she always studied so hard, Kyulkyung told that them that she did not have time to have many friends. So who actually knows what made her turn to Dongho and Jonghyun, who were both uninteresting in every way, never as snarky or witty as her.

To them, Kyulkyung had always been a very mysterious soul. Apparently her parents were never present in her life and she never spoke of her family, leading the two to assume that she was just all on her own. 

Only a handful of friends attended her funeral gathering, or at least according to Dongho, who had called Jonghyun earlier to check up on him while he himself was in attendance that day. Jonghyun stayed at home.

The guy had no face to show up at such a place, let alone next to Dongho. He instead watched Kang dress himself up for it and head out, while he waited by the wide glass windows looking at the city that stretched far.

Strangely, it was like her death had not made a difference in the world, even more so, those people that did somewhat care about her outside of Kangs circle, had already stopped mourning way before the gruesome discovery of her body, accepting that she was probably dead after two months way before.

Today Jonghyun had turned up a painful on and off cough, that was followed by shortness of breath. It was sudden and periodically came back over the day, so for most of it he laid down in bed awaiting his friend.

He felt like such a burden to the other who was already getting his life back together, he used to have a job in Seoul and he already had managed to apply to have his previous position back. While Jonghyun could possibly only imagine himself performing just some mundane manual labor for now, with no chance of ever going back to his abandoned studies, since that was way out of his pocket by a long shot.

In hopes to shut out the blue colored haze of the busy city shining down on him through the large windows surrounding his bedside, Jonghyun threw a blanket over his head turning himself into a balled up lump under the duvet.

Meanwhile, in another part of the huge city, the other one of the two had come to the funeral service wearing a black suit, hoping he’d at least match with everyone else. First he came to the room of mourning which only held the black ribbon picture of the pretty girl, it was eerie looking at her in a place like this. There was nobody else in that room at the time, it was sad knowing that she didn’t have any family around for her.

Dongho stared at the picture unable to think. This woman had made him miserable, but regardless of that fact seeing her dead made no sense to him. He often wanted to give up trying to figure out her murder on his own, for his own sake, but every time he remembered her, or now when he was seeing her smiling face in that photo, he felt as if he was obligated to finish what he had started.

Next, Dongho headed to the funeral dining hall. There weren’t many people though, just a handful of her friends that had organized this for her, at least it was something. Therefore all of the mourners present were fairly young adults just around her age.

The sulking, slightly drunk crowd sat around low floor tables pouring one another even more drinks to wash down their frowns. Dongho sat at such a table by himself and nobody dared to approach him knowing the relationship he had with Kyulkyung, everyone saw him as some kind of a pathetic ex still obsessing with her. After all, the two had broken up, but he still wore the ring. 

Dirty glances were thrown back at him from almost every other shoulder of those that weren’t brave enough to stare at Dongho directly. The man simply shrugged it off.

His presence here was shady to the others, they couldn’t be even more suspicious of him. Some chatter in the back of the room even accused Dongho of being the killer since he had been dumped by her, so he could’ve gone nuts about it.

Dongho didn’t look sad at all, in fact he had not come to mourn, instead he used this gathering to focus on finding the true killer. This was a chance to scan the guests, overhear any accidental gossip or something that would help him piece the story together himself.

According to the voices, nobody mentioned any unpaid debts she might have had, or any people who she had bad blood with, well aside from Kang of course. It was just like she had simply disappeared from thin air and then two months later was found buried in a shadow grave, body riddled with bullets. Everyone at the funeral knew that it did not add up.

It wasn’t a random act of murder, it had to be planned out by someone, like an assassination, the voices concluded and all of their sly stares landed directly on Dongho again, which he just kept ignoring.

There was one thing these people weren’t discussing though, the second passenger. If the forest had been combed, but no other body had been found, it would mean that the other witness had survived for some time after the crash, or she perhaps she had been the one who had killed Kyulkyung.

Donghos eyes carefully followed each woman who had turned up trying to find similar features with the unknown passenger. However he had to give it up soon, it wasn’t like the person would just show up now at the funeral out of nowhere.

His best chances were that if Kyulkyung was traveling alone with that person, then there had to be some kind of level of trust between them, meaning at least someone here had to know about her from Kyulkyung, unless she was really that secretive about this whole thing.

Right as he had finished that thought, Donghos eyes shot higher up from the fixed point of view of the doorframe, that he had been staring at to register faces of people as they entered, when a taller man had stepped in. Strangely, the two strangers immediately locked their eyes on one another although they had never met before.

The tall man was stunningly well dressed and groomed, his eyes reminded of a feline, sly and cunning, similar to Kyulkyungs. And the guy was staring right at him with this deep, soulless stare.

The stranger averted his stare and finally sat at a table far from Dongho to unite with a group of Kyulkyungs friends who knew him too. For some reason that guy was odd, short man noted and then soon shrugged it off anyways.

The voices in the room started to dim more, as others became slightly more aware that the prick Kang was probably eavesdropping, his eyes secretly darting around the room in response to noise.

Excluded, Dongho got up and walked to another table full of people where he was given many unwelcoming stares that were trying to signal at him to screw off. However, Dongho was determined to figure out who the mysterious stranger in that car was, even if Kyulkyungs friends looked down on him for meddling.

“Can I have moment with you all, please?” Dongho began sitting with his legs crossed before a group of sniffling young women and young adult men clutching to their alcohol.

“It’s Kang.” A girls’s voice tried to warn the others, hiding her voice by whispering. “Hey, Kang.” Then a man spoke, acting polite for the sake of not making an argument on a day of mourning.

Dongho could feel with every cell in his body that they wanted him to get lost, so he spoke quick, “Hey guys. I know this is out of nowhere, but I need your help.”

Even with the utmost sincerity in his voice nobody was willing to give him any trust, yet he continued, “Did any of you perhaps hear from the police about the person who was traveling with Kyulkyung before the car crashed?”

Woman who was wearing flashy, expensive jewelry to match her outfit, as if she had no real conscience for a friend who had passed away, began to talk in a yelling tone at Dongho, “How about you just let the police do their job. Eh, Kang?”

A young man from the crowd agreed, raising his finger at Dongho so close to his face that the guy flinched his chin to the right and winced eyes shut in case he was going to be hit with it. “Don’t you have other, better things to do?” A hoarse and cried out voice scolded him.

The same angry male continued to rant, “We are trying to share peaceful memories of her, while you are out here bothering people in grief.”

Dongho was barely holding himself together from getting mad, his fists had clenched until his knuckles poked white from his skin, “I mourned too damnit.” He hissed under his breath.

“You think I can remember her in peace just like you guys can, when I was the one who had found her in the ground after I had been searching for months hoping she could still be alive?” Dongho raised his now angry red-rimmed eyes at the others, who acted like they had all lost their tongues. 

“I need to know which bastard did this.” Dongho swore, causing a who line of people to gulp in sync, “I just need to know who the other passenger was.”

The table became silent, in fact the whole room and the other guests did too. Turns out, nobody knew what he was talking about. “Another passenger?” A confused female voice made Dongho freeze up in realization that the cops had probably not made it known.

Eventually, someone else had a change of heart and spoke in Donghos defense, “If there was someone with her, shouldn’t we be getting questioned in relation to it? It totally could have been one of us.”

Dongho shook his head, “No, they aren’t here today.” Then to others surprise, he pulled out his phone to show them something. All others had raised their eyebrows in interest as soon as he showed them a screenshot of the CCTV video, like a flock of birds they gathered around the phone.

“What the? Is this her?” Someone asked pointing at Kyulkyung in the picture, then another voice followed, “This has to be her after disappearance!”

Again people gave Dongho odd glances trying to figure out how he even got a hold of this, of course the man wasn’t going to mention it. Assuming that by now the Police should have already acquired the footage from that restaurant for the investigation, Dongho kept the possession of his own separate copy a secret for safe measure.

However the fact that none of Kyulkyungs friends had been contacted to recognize the person in the video, kinda confirmed that the police wasn’t doing their jobs again. This was everyone’s first time ever seeing this.

“Do you recognize the other person?” Dongho asked the woman staring the most fiercely at the image. 

When he saw her nod, sweat began to rain down his face. “Those are Kyulkyungs clothes on her.” There was a sudden, abrupt pause in her voice, as if the last anxious letter had gotten trapped in her throat.

“Wait that is – Im Nayoung.” She exclaimed.

Dongho had never heard that name before, “Nayoung?” He repeated just to be clear. 

The groom wasn’t alone not knowing who this person was some people looked at the speaker just as confused as he did.

“They were close friends, really, really close.” The woman claimed, soon followed by the other woman wearing jewelry pitching in, “When Nayoung became very sick Kyulkyung dropped her school to take care of her.”

This was insane, Dongho had never known this, because this whole time he was under the impression that he and Jonghyun were her only closest friends. So if this was true, then why would she try to hide the fact that she was a caretaker of someone from them, it was weird.

“Where is Im Nayoung?” He desperately looked around for someone that knew, but they were all as clueless as he was. 

“The last I heard she was moving to live abroad for treatment.” The first woman spoke again in a tiny voice. Everyone arched their eyebrows not understanding of it.

If Nayoung had left the country because of an unnamed illness, then how was she still there in that photo with Kyulkyung.

However, at the same time Dongho felt less confused and more accomplished. He couldn’t believe it, he now finally had a lead and hopefully, this Nayoung was still alive somewhere, perhaps too scared to come forwards to police for the same reasons that they had covered up the murder of her friend.

The man did not waste any time and right then departed from the rest of the mourners that had flocked to him to have his leave. Dongho would report his find to the smartest one he knew – Jonghyun, and together they would figure out on what to do next.

As he stormed off to reunite with Jonghyun back home, a voice called him out from behind in the longest hall. Dongho turned around to see the same strange tall man from before chase him down to speak with him privately.

The guy bought out this wide, annoying and obviously fake smile on his face. “Kang Dongho, I am a close friend of Kyulkyung.” He greeted.

The tallest introduced himself by holding out a hand for a handshake that Kang did not at all want to hold, “The name’s Hwang Minhyun.” Kang would only raise a suspicious brow at the tall jerk.

“A very close friend of Kyulkyung?” Dongho mockingly tilt his head in doubt.

“A close friend that I’ve never met despite being her fiancé?” Dongho questioned the validity of the other man, assuming that this man much like the other funeral guests had only come here as an excuse to get off work and be drunk for the next three days.

The tall man replied with a deep chuckle, his adams apple bobbing from his throat like it had a life of its own. 

“I could say the same exact thing about not knowing you, but perhaps I just never noticed the ring on her finger next to half a dozen of other ones she wore on the same hand.” He teased.

Right then, Dongho wanted to let out a growl in this guys nasty mug. Clearly this had been turned into some kind of a turf war and he so seriously wanted to punch him, but he wanted to keep his only suit clean. 

“What do you want from me with this?” Dongho made a low grunt, Minhyun again poured out his laughs claiming that he was merely joking around, but something told Dongho he wasn’t.

The tall man suddenly switched to being more serious, “You are trying to figure out what happened to her on your own, right?”

Dongho snort in irony, he wasn’t going to let this jerk know a thing about it, but he was persistent with it. “I already know you’ve been asking people around, I heard you talk inside of the dinning hall just now.” He spoke.

There was a pause, Minhyun switched his weight from one foot to the other, “I want to know what happened to my friend on that day too. So I want to join you to find out who did this.”

Although Dongho hated this guy too much, he wasn’t just going to deny help, any type of help at this point. “Do you know anything about Im Nayoung?” He asked the main thing.

“Can’t say for sure.” Minhyun straightened his back and crossed his arms, his head tilting to the side heavy from thought, “I was told the same thing you were told, that she has left the country, but as it turns out, that was not the case.” He winked.

The tall male left three empty seconds in-between, before clicking his tongue and unlocking his hands to finish his thought, “You should just contact me later.” Dongho was left on a cliffhanger note.

Then Minhyun reached into his wallet to hand out a small business card to the other, Dongho didn’t know that people even still used these. He read the small paper that told him the tall man was a part of a talent agency. His titles called him a model and an actor, so no wonder this guy always seemed so grossly fake whenever he spoke.

Dongho finally scrolled his pupils up from the card to look at Hwang in the face for another sharp remark, “You seem awfully cheery for someone who’s coming to a funeral of a very close friend.”

The guy shook his head, his smile wearing off, “Oh trust me, Kyulkyung would have wanted for her life to be celebrated not mourned. She even said that she wanted to live fun, not long.” Minhyun started smiling at the ground, apparently getting caught up deep in thoughts.

He looked back up, “Plus, I can see that you aren’t moping either. You are set to find out who killed her first, right?” Minhyun received a nod and gave one back.

The tallest noticed how Kang was already shifting his soles in place wanting to leave, so he began to speak his last word, “I want to discuss everything with you some place more discreet. Contact me soon, okay?”

“I guess.” Dongho sighed, he was having second thoughts already. Suddenly, right before leaving, the tallest performed something very odd. 

“By the way,” Minhyun spoke much more silent and then leaned in to Donghos earlobe only a breath away from touching it with his face.

His voice sent the worst chills down Donghos spine, “Have you not noticed that you are being followed?”

Minhyun patted his other hand across Donghos back, pretending to give the mourner a half hearted hug. He then smiled, again bringing out that slimy and annoying smirk, and then began to walk off leaving Dongho in a state of confusion.

Dongho scoffed, blowing angry steam from his nostrils and not believing a word Hwang had said. But he still like a fool had turned his head in almost every direction looking for this alleged stalker that did not exist.

“Was that jackass trying to mess with me?” Dongho asked himself under his breath, before heading out the same way the suspicious tall stranger had gone to.

 

With heavy steps Dongho entered his new home, hanging his car keys on the hook of a jacket holder by the door. Exhausted and sleepy, he shoved his fingers behind his own heels to tear himself out of the shoes quicker.

The man was late to notice the absence of light in the apartment, despite him getting a few new bulbs fixed earlier, it wasn’t even that late for the lights to be off already. There was no warm welcome back from his housemate either.

He switched on one after another in every room he went through to reveal a more and more alarming scene, Jonghyun was missing from the apartment. 

Dongho had instantly freaked out, his heart almost leaping from his chest in absolute horror. Maybe he was traumatized, maybe only paranoid, but he could not endure this type of grief of losing someone for the second time.

Yet this time it hurt more, Jonghyun had been there for him since they had been young. He had remained loyal to Dongho even if he had been wrongfully accused and condemned by him. Kang felt he could not afford to lose him, Jonghyun was everything that kept Dongho sane anymore.

He yelled again, his trembling voice piercing through his apartment looking for the man who had left the bed undone and slippers thrown by the frame of the door. 

A grim gush of wind came through the hall raising hairs on both of Donghos arms. He wasn’t just imagining it, there was a constant whistling breeze coming from somewhere in the house.

Almost as if he didn’t want to turn that way, his eyes guided him to the balcony which had its door unlocked open, opening and shutting themselves against the frame each time a breeze pounded from the outside.

He slowly neared that door, his steps almost weak enough to make him sway, Dongho had become spooked by it, as it was some kind of a bad omen. A faint noise, but loud enough to distract him, came from back inside the apartment. As an effort to hear it again, Dongho had stopped every muscle from moving in his body.

Up next, Dongho squeaked his lungs out when a pair of arms grabbed him from behind locking tight around him. “Woah, you just scared the shit out of me dude!” He groaned at the grinning attacker.

Jonghyun laughed at his friends scared expression, to him it seemed a bit overboard, “Sorry.” He had long let go of the tight back hug by then, “I just missed hugging you.”

After an another annoyed groan, Dongho began to speak like a father to a spoiled child, “Why did you leave the door open like that, you dumbass?”

“I just wanted to air out the room!” Jonghyun swore, but something in his voice cracked, Dongho could tell right away whenever Jonghyun was lying.

Before Dongho had come home, the boy suddenly felt as if the room was stuffy and out of air, but even when he had opened the window wide it still felt the same. Jonghyun realized it wasn’t the bad air around him, instead his lungs had gone bad and now Dongho was aware of it too, but at least the doctor appointment was coming up soon.

In the dark of that room, Dongho watched his friends eyes sparkle like reflecting glass gems, focused only on him, as if the shortest was the only thing in Jonghyuns vision. Dongho held his complaint and hugged him back instead, glad that they were together.


	15. Chapter 15

Jonghyun woke first, laying facing Dongho in bed both of them sleeping on their side bodies folded into a half circle looking at one another. It looked like it was going to be another good morning.

The first thing the tallest did in the morning was smile, the far corners of his mouth reaching far before he ever showed teeth. Meanwhile, the first thing Dongho did was yawn and only then smile back at the other. Jonghyun still liked him the same, like he always have.

What did they even see in one another, the same thought raced through both of their heads, both of the equally as unconvinced that the other party could love someone as unlikable as them.

Dongho was too tired last night to stay up and discuss the important matters, even more so after Jonghyun drained him pale by making him believe that the bastard had ran off missing too. For the most part, Jonghyun had to be the one to help him undress that, but then they accidentally got caught up in very intimate hugging and ended up falling asleep with their shoes one.

Before Dongho had come home that night, Jonghyun was unable to get a wink of sleep. When Dongho wasn’t near him is the nightmares returned. This time perhaps because he had taken that cursed medicine that night, it must have messed with his head by making the nightmares more vivid, more terrifying.

The undead wraith of Kyulkyung had came to haunt him in his nightmares, yelling at him in a ghastly, shrilling voice that kept tormenting him. Asking him why had he left her in that forest to rot while he was rolling around in bed with her ex.

Jonghyun kept telling himself, that all of those things in his dreams were all just an illusion, they weren’t real. He kept telling himself to ignore those voices in his head up until Dongho would come and they would all fade out.

Still on the bed, Dongho had noticed that somber look on his friends face. Without asking, he reached to dip a thumb into his friends overgrown fringe to sway it away from Jonghyuns pretty eyes revealing the mans signature look, dark circles rimming his eyes like raccoons. His always gloomy pupils glimmered and trembled looking ahead.

Jonghyun decided to speak carefully, knowing he was about to ruin the mood anyways, “Um, how was the funeral?”

The shortest shrugged then sighed, sitting up in bed – nothing special about funerals. It wasn’t exactly a proper one, as it was organized by a handful of the woman’s friends, Dongho explained. Then he also didn’t forget to mention how everyone there had hated him for showing up.

“There is something else I found out too.” Dongho warned him, “Huh?” Jonghyun became eager to hear him.

Dongho quickly began talking, “I asked around if anyone knew the other person Kyulkyung was with, the one shown in the CCTV footage.”

Jonghyun almost jolted to bark out his next question, “Wait, did you show it to them, did they ask you how you got it?” Dongho shook his head.

He instead continued to the big eyed Jonghyun, “They knew who she was – Her name is Im Nayoung.” 

Jonghyuns eyes widened at the news, prompting Dongho to throw him a glance, “You perhaps know her?” Jonghyun had to shake his head to dismiss. “Apparently they were very close.” Dongho added. 

Jonghyun contemplated, why would Kyulkyung be so secretive around the two men and was there even a good reason for it. Kyulkyung would never mention any of her other friends to them, not even to Dongho, even if she had come close to marrying that guy. At that point Dongho probably wouldn’t even have known half of the guests at his own wedding. 

Dongho continued, “I’m positive investigators are playing with us, because not a single person at the funeral had been questioned about Nayoung. At this point it seems that the cops aren’t even bothered to actually find her either.”

Jonghyun sighed, he hated when this guy always blamed everything on the cops. Well, maybe he had some right to say it considering the two men had managed to track down the murder all on their own, but of course they did break a few laws along the way.

“Luckily, I met a guy who had known Nayoung, actually!” Dongho remembered that he had never called the poor bastard back, his business card was still inside the jeans pocket, hanging from the headrest of the bed.

“But can we trust him?” Jonghyun asked the obvious, not wanting to let some random guy snitch on them for the evidence they were trying to gather.

Dongho fished out the card while speaking, “He said he was close to Kyulkyung, and was even spoke of avenging her, it seems like.” 

Jonghyun took a glance at it, “Hwang Minhyun?” The tall guy thought that he would have to break his neck backwards trying to get his head around this, “Who are any of these people?” He sulked, “I thought it was just us three?”

This wasn’t something that he should be angry about it, given that the woman had been two faced all along, but Jonghyun still felt somewhat jealous. As Dongho and Jonghyun only had one another all their lives, while Kyulkyung, who already had it all, had come in only to set them apart.

“No clue. Don’t even care about much of it anymore. I just want to know what she wanted from you and who is responsible for putting her in the ground.” Dongho spoke stern.

Jonghyun nodded to show that he has agreed. All of a sudden, a morbid idea had crossed his mind. He thought it was silly, but he still slipped it out regardless.

“Do you think once we figure out what she was trying to tell me, we will end up like her too?” Jonghyun made a hurt smile.

Dongho snort as if he had heard a shitty joke. “Relax kid. Nothing can hurt you more than you hurting yourself.” He teased, wanting to cup Jonghyuns cheeks full of worry.

On his way of doing so, Dongho instead became caught up with just staring at Jonghyun again. His heart was picking up pace when the other began to stare right back with the same insensitivity.

Jonghyun secretly waited for his friend to make a move first, because he was too shy and timid to do it himself, forgetting the other idiot was about the same. It was too embarrassing to request anything out of Dongho out loud, because how the hell do you ask someone to kiss you without sounding needy and desperate.

“You know,” Dongho suddenly started to speak, “After all of this is done, we can finally—”

Jonghyun didn’t mean to cut him off right then, in fact he really wanted to hear what his friend had to say next, but a big, sudden cough broke out. The poor guy wheezed and choked, same as last night again. Obviously, Donghos first response to this was anything, but calm.

“Jonghyun, for fucks sake, you need to go to the hospital.” He almost shout. Jonghyun would try to chuckle at him, “You are overreacting.”

“Even if I am, you still haven’t gone to a doctor in ages.” Dongho insisted, tugging him by his elbow as if he was going to drag him out to the doctors himself this very instant.

To think that the guy had once punched him in a fit of rage, was now obsessing over Jonghyuns bad health felt like a small victory to the tall male. This was the best kind of payback, also the most cruel one.

“Okay, I’ll go. I’ll go.” Jonghyun yanked his arm back to himself, smiling wide at the another. While doing so, he felt another wave of coughs source from his lungs, but he secretly held his breath and swallowed down not wanting to disappoint Dongho.

 

Dongho had decided, enforced, himself to be present while Jonghyun spoke with his doctor, knowing the bastard would try to hide any scary diagnosis away from him.

Now the two were sitting side by side in front of the desk of male doctor, throwing angry glances at one another while the health professional went over Jonghyuns embarrassingly long medical history, asking him about almost every other thing out loud and right in front of Dongho, who against his friends will, had confirmed to the doctor he was the guys caretaker.

The shortest repeated to himself something Jonghyun had confessed to the doctor when asked. “Mixing alcohol with prescription drugs? Seriously?” Dongho grunt under his breath, ignoring the doctor in the room to be mad at his friends recklessness.

“It was an accidental that time!” Jonghyun swore on his life, shrugging his shoulders like an annoyed kid. “Prick.” To Dongho the guy surely looked like the type to do such a thing by accident.

The elderly doctor shifted his sights from one man to the other, waiting for the two of them to either stop arguing or instead start plucking at one another’s hair, they could barely go without attacking one another for five minutes. 

Later, Dongho soon found himself sitting out in the hallway of the hospital floor, nervously waiting for Jonghyun to get through his examinations. The pink skin around Dongho thumbs was peeled sore, his fingernails already chewed to quick.

The doctors office had a small viewing window one could peek inside of. When Dongho stood and walked near he saw the back of a doctor, making Jonghyun do some kind of a breathing exercise.

The weak man held a hand over his chest copying the doctor and making deep exhales. Dongho pulled away the instant he saw Jonghyun begin to choke in front of the doctor, the shortest really hated seeing him like that.

Minutes later, Jonghyun had invited Dongho into the doctors office too, with this huge stupid grin on his face – the first bad sign.

It turned out his fears had been somewhat true. It was deemed that Jonghyun absolutely needed immediate treatment. Doctor began listing all kinds of pre-existing and new problems that had made Jonghyun so horribly ill all this time. The doctor tried to explain everything slow, so that Dongho could understand all of it, but the man was focuses only on how many zeros the cost for each separate treatment would be. 

In his head he had already completely shut out the possibility of Jonghyun getting worse, he didn’t even want to think about it. Dongho was just going to keep paying however much it takes until his friend is healthy and happy again.

From what he gathered, this meant that Jonghyun had to stay at the hospital for some time while being monitored and given the right doses of medicine by doctors.

“When will he be able to leave the hospital the soonest?” Donghos sudden question at the end of doctors careful words of condolence shocked the elder, almost like Dongho hadn’t been listening to understand how serious this was.

“I can’t be precise until all the test results come back.” The elderly man felt a little intimidated by the young man towering over him as if he was at fualt.

As the doctor began explaining this to him, Dongho was already losing his temper more and more. His eyebrows arched, teeth clenched behind his tightly sealed lips as if he was going to jump at the man in the apron and punch him for scaring the two with such diagnosis.

“I’ll be fine, you jerk.” Jonghyun did a small cheer to calm him. 

Dongho could tell the guy didn’t want to stay locked up at a hospital even for a day or two, these places absolutely terrified him and made him feel alone, he was only doing this to make his friend happy. The shortest felt bad for him.

 

A pair of spying eyes flickered to Dongho exiting an elevator on the first floor all by himself, Kangs legs were dragging against the ground like he had no willpower left to even fold his knees at that point. Jonghyun was nowhere to be seen.

The curious watcher hid their face under a cap, following Dongho closely behind until the man had entirely leave the building. The figure grew hot feet trying to decide if they should continue still following Dongho outside, knowing he was most likely just going straight to home.

Eventually after taking too long to figure it out, the shy figure overdramatically drooped shoulders and sighed in defeat watching Dongho fade out into the crowd of hospital employees and patients clogging the buildings entrance.

Officer Kwak took off his cap and facemask as soon as his target was out of sight to take a deep breath, he began ruffling his own hair that had become a literal mess while being stuck inside his protective cap for pointless hours of waiting at the hospital.

He yawned like a lion, stumbling on one foot while the other slept, walking to the coffee machine to serve him something that would give him enough energy to even get himself back to a place where he could crash for the night.

On that same late night, the officer buzzed himself into an apartment that didn’t belong to him, but it was closer from the hospital and way more comfortable than the shared bunk bed dorm room he had been assigned with, or at least that was his most successful excuse of being let through the door.

Another boy, a year or two younger than him greeted him letting into the living room that connected to the entrance hall, “Oh, hey Aaron.”

The other boy spoke in a weak, soft spoken voice, he walked in an odd way, gliding his slippers across the floor as if he was on rails, until he reached back of a couch that he could use as support.

“Hey Mingi,” The short cop noticed his friends weirdly pale face and automatically worried. “Let me help you buddy!” He rushed to help his sickly friend sit, but the other began nagging at him for it.

“I really can help myself, you jerk.” He waved off his helper and sat down onto a leaning chair, prompting the cop to sit down across from him on the couch. 

“Gosh, you really are clingy.” Mingi whined, resting his neck on the backrest wile judgingly watching his friend tease him by jiggling his head from left to right and mockingly smiling. Kwak wasn’t even going to deny it.

The bastard reached his hand to the middle of the table where there was a glass bowl of stale crackers, to munch on them as if it was his lunch. Next to them stood Mingis still hot cup of coffee he had just made, not expecting he would need a second cup for a guest.

“So,” Mingi leaned forwards, his fingers intertwined in interest to hear some more inside info about Aarons weird job task. 

“Did you get anything?” He tilted his head prettily, while enticingly fluttering his eyelashes. This was confidential, but whenever Mingi did that, Aaron just couldn’t resist him.

Aaron shook his head in denial, “One guy was hospitalized. Dunno for what though, but I reported it anyways. So maybe at least I’ll get a break out of this.”

He continued with a big pout, “I’ve only been following them for like three days, but it has been so exhausting. I never get any sleep.” This is not how he had imagined his new promotion going.

Mingi nodded pretending to understand, raising a mug of coffee preset on the table to his lips for a sip and then speaking again, “Don’t you think that is a bit weird though, why are you even meant to stalk these guys?”

Aaron groaned, he had already explained this before despite it being a very secret, confidential info, only further proving that Mingi barely ever actually listened to him.

“They are suspects Mingi! Sometimes criminals end up returning to the site of the crime or even report their own crime to throw off any suspicion.” Aaron carefully explained, to which Mingi couldn’t roll his eyes back any harder.

“If you know so much about true crime philosophy, then why don’t you use the rest of your brain and just ask for a warrant to search their houses for evidence first?” Mingi almost raised his voice at the clumsy cop.

“Don’t ask me! I’m not an investigator! I’m just an honest cop following my orders.” Aaron balled up his fist and proudly pounded it at his puffed out chest. “Honest my ass.” Mingi took another sip.

Aaron backed himself up, “Listen, they probably picked me because I have a good connection with one of the suspects – Kim Jonghyun, we used to know one another at one point!”

Mingi was getting so heated over this nonsense he almost spat his coffee back into the cup, “So you telling me that they sent the least qualified cop in the whole country to stalk two murder suspects, just because one of them used to attend the same middle school as you ten years ago? Don’t make me laugh.”

Now there was this uncomfortable, long gap of silence in-between them. The shortest pout, thinking about how his nonsensical friend might be right, but naturally his arrogant bone didn’t want Aaron to give in to any of Mingis ideas, purely out of spite.

“Aaron, all of this is too fishy, don’t ya think?” Mingi suddenly lost his angry temper, setting the mug down on the low table and leaning himself forwards once more, “Like someone is just paying off someone disposable like you to do shady shit for them?”

Aaron went silent for a bit and appeared to digest the theory, “Well yeah, this whole things is actually a bit weird now that I think about it.”

He recalled having to comply to strange requests, like wearing a medical mask at the police station in front of the suspect, when he wasn’t sick. Then the suspect going all crazy eyed at him, claiming that all of police had been corrupt, not solving the case on purpose. Plus, if Aaron had to speak for himself, that guy really didn’t look like he could have killed his own fiancé, he was rather devastated by it, too traumatized.

“Anyways,” Aaron shrugged, “I just don’t want to lose my job now that I’m finally getting paid. And besides, the only reason I am here with you now is all thank to this.”

Mingi shut himself up from saying something mean, finding reason in the last words of his friend. Despite everything, he was truly thankful Aaron was now here for him. He missed him.

“None of this feels like a promotion at all.” The tall boy still pout like a kid to show his protest.

Aaron laughed, jumping from his seat to attack his friend with an apologetic hug and to get that mean look off Mingis face, only causing him to hiss and claw in defense.

 

Hospitals had this particular smell, everything was so clean, so sanitized. Because of it, the air on Jonghyuns floor felt metallic almost. Dongho was like a total alien hanging around here and walking past busy, overworked nurses strutting down the long hallways, and people not in their best health walking along the handle of the walls. He hated this place.

Before sliding open Jonghyuns patient room, Dongho had to take a deep breath, he stood holding bags for some clothes and other personal belongings. The man would be gone for quite long.

As soon as his face appeared in the opened doorway, he was met with a loud bark like voice, as if that person on the other side had been literally staring at the entrance and waiting for him to appear.

“Hey, Kang!” Jonghyun spoke to his friend in a cheery tone, hoping that Dongho was not still mad at him. How could he be mad, Dongho was worried to death.

The patient shared his hospital room with three more people, curtains existed to separate one bed from another, but private conversation was near impossible as the others in the same room also had their own relatives by their side.

“Hey, what’s with that face, I told you I feel fine!” Jonghyun almost jumped to stand in his own bed when Dongho sat down on the edge to sigh. 

“I had no idea you were this sick.” Dongho scolded him, not wanting to face him in shame for not having been able to help him sooner. Jonghyun found himself shrugging, “It’s really nothing, you shouldn’t worry this much.”

Dongho couldn’t hold it, “Its because of me right? If I had gotten faster to you that day, If I had cared for you better while waiting for the ambulance to arrive.” The shortest tried to act angry and pent up, but the tremor of sadness in his voice gave the truth away.

“Stop it,” Jonghyun didn’t want to hear this, not right now, “Don’t blame yourself for it, it was an accident.”

Dongho looked at his friend thinking what did he do to earn such quick forgiveness from him. “I should’ve at least helped you pay your hospital bills before I just left you there.”

He had been gone from his life for a year, only a year and all of this had happened to him. He felt devastated, guilty and disgusted with himself for being the cause for all of this.

Jonghyun didn’t know what else to say, “You are really starting to irk me, Kang.” He acted upset.

While nobody else in the room was seeing it, Dongho had in secret taken Jonghyuns hand in his, crushing the frail, bony fingers in his palm. Jonghyun squeezed back, but his grasp was weak, barely there.

The silence didn’t help the short man find much peace. So instead he let go to get something from a paper plastic bag he had bought, thinking Jonghyun might like a little gift while stuck here.

“My bear!” Jonghyun came close to making a high-pitched squeal making an almost childlike expression of joy. It made Dongho smile too, he wished he could be just as cheerful as him.

Jonghyun pet the head of his toy, gazing into its big button eyes and suddenly felt a rush of melancholy wash over him. This is where he had first met his plushy friend, in a place like this – a hospital.

“Should I—leave you two alone now?” Dongho joked at the bizarre reunion. Jonghyun grabbed his hand in panic, “No!”

The weak bastard still somehow had the strength to pull a whole Dongho into his room bed and over himself for a forced cuddle. “Woah!” Dongho broke out of it quickly, protectively holding his elbow in front of him like a shield to defend himself from another likely attack.

Dongho loved it – being hugged by Jonghyun and all, but he was anxious of others eyes in the patient room. It made Jonghyun chuckle, his friend was more timid than him when it came to simple acts of affection.

“Are you going to stay here with me?” Jonghyun asked. “Yeah, of course. I know how much you hate these places.” Dongho brushed off.

Jonghyun was thankful, smiling down at the dropped palms in his lap, “I don’t think you should this time, you must find Kyulkyungs friend instead.”

“Jonghyun.” Dongho was baffled his friend was even remembering about such a thing, “That doesn’t matter right now.”

Jonghyun shot his eyes up agitated, “It does! I know it does.” He continued, “I don’t want to be a nuisance living on your neck while you are scrambling to pay off a big apartment and I’m not even helping when I’m sick.” He admitted his faults.

“I am so useless like this, I am sorry.” Jonghyun became tearful, looking away to hide it, “Do what you have to do, don’t waste your time with me here.”

Instead of agreeing Dongho groaned, “Idiot. I know you were trying to avoid the doctor for as long as you could, just because you wanted to be useful for longer.”

Jonghyun was surprised Dongho knew, could it really have been that obvious. The tall boy just wanted to be a good kid, so his friend wouldn’t go sooner.

Gradually, the other man became just as sad as he was. “You know that I need you, right? More than anything else.”

Jonghyun acted unconvinced, but his arms went to hug around Dongho anyways, next to him he became small and tiny, his face covered by his own long bangs pressed into friends warm, welcoming chest.

“I am sorry.” Jonghyun whispered. Dongho held his tongue to respond to it, he knew the tallest would not listen if Kang told him that it wasn’t his fault.

The other man decided to stay with Jonghyun for a bit longer that night. 

Dongho laid him down to sleep, holding the mans pale, cold hand. He pulled Jonghyuns frail fingers to his own trembling lips, kissing across his knuckles, top lip hugging the jewel of their engagement ring.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dongho be like 
> 
> >{~°3°} * *** *

While Jonghyun was temporarily away Dongho was all on his own trying to get back where he had left off with the investigation and he didn’t even know where to start. Nothing had helped him as much as having Jonghyun by his side, even if he wasn’t all that helpful.

It appeared that Dongho was pretty much of many options not knowing where to even look for this Nayoung. How would he even go about finding a person who was not even officially reported as missing. By all accounts, she had left to live abroad, there were no witnesses to say where she had actually gone.

Dongho wasn’t too good with finding out any information about a person online, usually Jonghyun was a bit better with stuff like that. Dongho was sable to make some calls, but even then he could still not prove that such a woman even existed.

In the end, after hours of pointless searching via his computer, or even going through a damn phonebook, Dongho could not find shit about Im Nayoung, apart from the fact that she was once a student at a Seoul city university, but then abruptly dropped out to just disappear off the records for years. She had to have been sick this whole time, Dongho pieced it together.

In near demise, he remembered, how there was always that one guy who had promised to tell him everything he knew about Nayoung at the funeral – Hwang Minhyun, or whatever.

However Dongho really didn’t want to interact with that guy one bit, not only did he seem all slimy and gossipy, but also Kangs gut feeling was literally yelling at him to stay the hell away from that man.

He decided to save that contact for later, as right now there was actually another way, one that was very hard for him to give in to because up to now Dongho had really not been wanting to do it.

Someone in the man’s extended family worked as an actual cop, this in-law was an older man who had married his young sister and was high ranking officer. One who’s face had been in the papers and on the TV numerous times. 

Now Dongho wasn’t implying that he might use that connection to actually pull some strings within the police department, but if he could, perhaps he would just merely fiddle with them.

For the entirety of this mess Kang had always placed his suspicion on the state of police, he strongly believed that someone on the inside was corrupt and had at least had some hand in covering up Kyulkyungs case. If that was the truth, which he believed it was, Dongho wanted to at least know who was responsible because if they were exposed it would bring real justice.

The only problem with this was that Dongho hated the guy, because of just him he basically hated all of police. Jonghyun had mentioned the idea of it to Dongho to just ask his brother in law for help, but the stubborn fool would always shoot it down. 

That jerk was so possessive of his new wife, he wouldn’t even let her meet with Dongho anymore, although surprisingly only just him though, rest of the family wasn’t included in a such ban. It was quite obvious that the older police man despised the little brother of his wife for one reason or another as well.

Jonghyun wasn’t here anymore, but his advice kept echoing in Donghos mind for the whole day until he decided to just give in and at least talk to the cop. It was worth a try.

 

Donghos sister lived in a nice area somewhere on the edge of the map of the city. Her apartment appeared to be more of a mansion with multiple floors. It was flashy, evermore so on the inside.

White stone pillars separated the maze of bright halls tied to opaque curtains that drooped from the high ceiling. Windows presented a five star hotel like view of the city far away tucked behind lush green mountains.

Maybe if instead of being miserable, Dongho had studied harder in school like his older sister, become a doctor instead and married someone important like she did, then he could be living like this too. Instead, she sent him monthly allowance out of pity.

The front door of the mansion, drew open and an older looking man appeared in its doorway, raising his hands to his chin to loosen the tie belonging to his work attire, an expensive watch sat on his wide tan arm, his hair was slightly grayed on the sides.

A frail woman immediately rushed to him, her slippers were dragging across the floor quick. She was desperate to see him, “Honey, you need to talk to him!” 

She looked back towards the direction of the main hall in agitation, “I told him to leave, but he said he won’t unless he sees you!”

Dongho sat grumpy across his sisters living room armchairs, arms crossed and folded. For him it felt a little gross to touch anything here, it was all so clean and glimmering with luxury, making Dongho want to puke at the sight.

He looked so out of place sitting in a room mainly dominated by colors of white and gold, while he himself was ragged, his dark leather jacket still flaking stains of mud. Dongho had to touch his own face to remember if he had even shaved today.

Heavy steps approached the room where he sat, Dongho grew a little wary already knowing which prick they belonged to, but even if he was nervous, his mean face wasn’t going anywhere.

The husband of his sister walked in, a man old enough to be his father, stood across the coffee table from him, refusing to take a seat.

Dongho felt a little taken aback, his bottom lip fell. “Uhm. Good day sir.” Dongho cursed at himself for greeting that vile prick so nicely, but his stare was so paralyzing, he acted cautious.

The man didn’t want to waste his breath, looking down on the dirty brat sitting on his nice, clean furniture. “Kang, what are you doing in my house?”

Just because the cop and his wife had a different last name, the guy had now decided that he was somehow better than his in-laws. Saying Donghos last name out loud with such intonation it made it sound like he was disgusted to say it. 

Dongho lowered his head in an act of obedience, “I came to ask for your help, please sir.” The short male forced himself to say, the fingers he had rest on his knees were digging deep into his jeans, as to claw through from hate.

The older man looked at him for a while, his face cold and mean. Slowly he bent his knees to join the other man in sitting, although he sat at the furthest seat from him. 

For a change, miraculous one, the man was actually going to try listening to what Dongho had to say. The short man found it odd, in the beginning he had assumed that he would just be sent out flying in under a minute.

“What is it?” He spoke in an informal tone to the youngest, a deep unpleasant grunt was stuck in his throat.

“You might have already heard this from my sister,” Dongho swore he had heard the other mans eyebrow suddenly twitch. Dongho protectively lowered his head like a scared puppy again, afraid of the other man looming over him with his eyes like a cloud of thunder.

“My fiancé had gone missing.” He described, causing the other man to wince his eyebrow even further trying to understand if was this just an elaborate way to beg his extended family for more money.

Dongho could see the impatience in those angry eyes, so he started speaking quick to surprise him, “She was found murdered, but it feels like nothing is being done about the it by the police.”

Because of a sudden rush of adrenaline, he continued speaking more bravely, “I think that there is something shady going on, someone in the police force might be paid off to cover the whole thing up?”

“You are paranoid.” The other man attacked him. “Huh?” Dongho felt like he was cut off in the middle of his speech. 

“I am not!” He swore, “There is a missing witness, she has a name and people who know her, but police is doing nothing to track her down!”

“And how do you know this?” The cop asked the other, raising an eyebrow of doubt. Dongho was being mocked.

“I investigated everything on my own, that’s how useless you cops are.” He spat words at the other. 

The other man showed his cheek while laughing, “Well, if we are so useless then why are you here begging me for any help?” The older man began to sit up, done with this conversation.

Dongho panicked seeing the man rise, and the next moment he threw himself on the ground to kneel before the cop. He told himself he wouldn’t do this, but he was so desperate now, he felt the corners of his vision blur like he was about to sob.

“I am sorry, sir.” He spoke facing the ground.

Right then, Donghos oldest sister had come into the room to break up the fight. She bit her lip in pity and second hand embarrassment seeing her own brother on the floor, praying to her husband on his knees.

The man looked down in disgust, like Dongho was nothing more than a mere bug beneath the sole of his shoe. “There is nothing to discuss, you are accusing the state of police of corruption. I will not stand for this.”

Dongho must have forgotten to who he was speaking to, the man was high in rank amongst the country police. Mentioning the chance of corruption under his jurisdiction was almost like making a personal insult.

“What should I do?” He asked out loud when his eyes registered the mans legs walk away. “Go directly to the police, not me.” The man mocked him again.

Kangs clenched fingers crawled on the carpeting in anger, stray droplets of wet from his eyes landed in between his hands. Dongho sniffled trying to hold himself together and when he looked up the man was gone, it was his sister standing there instead, looking at him with the most disappointed eyes. 

Dongho had apologized for letting her down again and left. He felt so absolutely helpless, Dongho and Jonghyun had been searching for so long, but yet it all always seemed in vain like this. He put all his anger into driving instead. Jonghyun was waiting for him.

At least it wasn’t snowing in the city like it was back in that forsaken town. Bright signboards making the dark bright and streets buzzing with actual people, Dongho was relieved to have it all back, it calmed him. However the tense feeling from before still wouldn’t leave his temples, not before he saw Jonghyun.

Dongho was not too sure, but had this strange feeling he was somehow being followed, because a similar car always sat in the traffic behind him. It was probably his imagination, he just shrugged it off until he had made few more turns, and then his suspicions grew huge.

Every time he looked behind him on the road, it was always the same car, that stalked him so closely it was almost tailgating him at times seemingly trying to catch up. Dongho tried to glance into his rear view mirror to see the driver, but the cars headlights shined so blindingly close, he could not see.

The strange car even followed him into the underground parking lot near the hospital, but right before he could reach a row of empty parking spots the car turned and drove off out of the sight of the small rear view mirror, as if it knew where Dongho would park.

In worry, Dongho tried to look back for it, but new cars flooded in from the same tunnel and he had entirely lost it. Kang was a bit shaken now, he could not be imagining it. Or maybe everything was okay, and he was simply just losing it.

Instead of investigating it further, he rushed to see Jonghyun and make sure he was alright first, that was his literal first thought, Dongho was only worried for his safety and not his own.

On the right floor of the hospital, Jonghyun saw the same guy burst into his room panting like a pug as if he had come running instead of walking. 

“Miss me that much?” He sure still acted like a cretin.

Donghos eyes darted from left of the room to the right, scanning the faces of confused patients who had been shaken by his standoffish way of entering. Everything in the room was in place, Jonghyun was in one place, he was glad.

Although, he decided not to mention his new suspicions to the other, Jonghyun was frail and weak and any more stress felt like it could probably hurt the guy. Besides, right now being labeled as a paranoid freak was the last thing Dongho wanted on his plate.

Talking about his brother in-law turning down helping him of ever finding what killed Kyulkyung was another thing Dongho did not want to mention to the pessimistic Jonghyun right now as well. It wasn’t like that this meant the end of it, there was still always hope.

Defeated, the man walked to Jonghyuns bed and collapsed into it almost as if he was more ill than his friend. “Hey, what’s the matter?” Jonghyuns laugh tickled Donghos ear from above.

To Jonghyun it appeared that this guy was too grumpy to give him any clear answers right now, Jonghyun wasn’t going to keep trying or ask again and just let Kang be for now.

“I’m tired, leave me alone.” Donghos confirmed it, his voice was a yell into a pillow. Jonghyun chuckled again, the guys laugh was so weird, but lovely at the same time. Dongho wanted to hear more of it.

As Dongho began to sit up, he was already getting himself a little bit too comfortable in his friends hospital bed, taking off his shoes down to the socks. Jonghyun bounced back in his own bed allowing Dongho to make space beside him, since the guy was quite big.

“I wish they let you out of this place soon.” He started to smile at Jonghyun who couldn’t agree more, “It is certainly is hard sleeping all by myself in here.”

Dongho stared at his friend for a bit with this big eyed stare, his round pupils would eventually flicker into the shapes of a heart, but he drew his gaze away once noticing the other patients in the room right as he was about to give Jonghyun the biggest smooch of his life. Although his chin did point up at the functioning curtain pole above for a split second, Jonghyun had to rightfully pinch him for it.

The two talked for a while until Jonghyun got sleepy quickly, he had to meet the nurses soon so Dongho decided to leave him alone. Jonghyun drifted to sleep with a small smile on his face, his hand hooked around his friends index finger implying a very strong want of having Dongho stay with him.

Even if Dongho really wanted to, the big guy still couldn’t stay. He watched the blissful smile fade from Jonghyuns lips once he had drifted off fully, the muscles of his face relaxing to calm. Again, Dongho affectionately swept Jonghyuns bangs out of his eyes before leaving. The jerk was still being really avoidant of getting a haircut these days.

 

When the night hours had come it didn’t actually feel much like it, because most of the day was just as dark as the night during the winter, and cities hospital was as lively with people at night, as it was during the day hours.

Dongho slowly made his way to the buildings elevators, not noticing a shadow figure zip by just slightly out of his vision and sneaking into the furthest elevator. 

A sudden nurses yell to move back made him stepped back from the elevator he was about to use, doctors rushed a wheelchair patient inside of it before he could step in. The doors closed in hurry. Instead he quickly headed for the other available elevator that was already just seconds away from leaving. Dongho squeezed himself in the last moment.

Officer Kwak was pushed right to the corner of the same elevator, trapped now standing merely an affair away from the face of the suspect that he was meant to be discreet about following. Aarons eyes went twice as big and knees began to shake straight away. 

When being this close to being discovered, Aaron felt like he might actually piss himself, shit himself, puke or all at once in this very elevator, and that wouldn’t even be his first time.

Dongho noticed something tickle his hand, the sleeve of the other man was shaking and trembling in place like a cold tree leaf, he glared deep down at the person doing it and came eye to eye with the undercover cop.

Aaron was wearing the same facemask and cap combo as before, but he could do nothing to hide his eyes, eyes that nervously darted in all directions giving him away by the minute. Dongho didn’t recognize him, but he swore that he had seen those big, sad dog looking eyes somewhere before. Out of politeness he turned to face away.

A whole ball of spit bobbed down Aarons throat when it happened, he felt so relieved it was like a giant had removed its foot from his chest. But now there was another dilemma, the two had to get off the same floor and go to the same parking spot, obviously because officer Kwak was still on his stalking duty.

When the doors reopened, Aaron made the sad attempt to silently follow Dongho out, and was successful at first walking behind his target at a short distance. But then out of nowhere Kang had stopped his walk, and then Aarons heart literally dropped.

Suddenly remembering where he had seen those eyes and the pair of giant eyebrows before, Dongho turned back to face the elevator. The police station back in Jonghyuns hometown, he was directly looking at the same cop that had interviewed him.

The two stood frozen looking at one another, Dongho had just caught Aaron in the act, and his reasonably enough face grew mad.

The guy began to stomp over to Aaron with his absolutely murderous stare on his face, for a second Aaron had already angled his limbs into a run, but at that point it was already far too late. 

Dongho grabbed the frail male by the front of his shirt to yell so loudly it attracted stares of the employees. “What the fuck are you doing here?” He threatened, “Have you been following me, you prick?”

Aaron cowered in fear, his eyes just as wide as they had been this whole time, “I—I am—not,” The cop stuttered, struggling to find words. He absolutely was the one stalking him from and to here, and Dongho was obviously not going to buy into his lies.

He tore the boys facemask down to the chin, revealing the rest of his face. Aaron looked like a total wuss, scared for his life. 

“Bullshit.” Dongho shook the front of his shirt one last time before letting him go. “Who are you?” He demanded to know. “Its just a coincidence sir! I swear!” Aaron lied to save his life.

“Excuse me.” A woman’s voice suddenly interrupted Dongho from behind, he slowly turned to see a building employee shaking in her boots, “I’m going to have to ask you to leave, sir.”

Now Dongho was being wrongfully accused, he wasn’t the one assaulting this stalker freak, this jerk did it first. Dongho tried to explain it to the employee, but by the time he had turned to the cop to make him confirm, the bastard was off top speed.

The man excused himself and ran outside, but his stalker was nowhere to be seen. Dongho was absolutely enraged over this, he had no clue what the guys deal was, but the fact that he was a cop was bad. Like all of his fears had been true.

The nervous wreck of a man ripped his eyes from staring into the ground when realizing something – unless that cop had gone rouge, Dongho probably being considered a suspect. But he wasn’t guilty, was someone trying to possibly frame him? Kang felt like he was losing his mind.

 

From far away the lights of Seoul looked like a glowing veil pulled over the great hills, and lone stars shined above dim. A dark figure of a man stood in a wide window, holding a glass of something opaque, the liquid glimmered in the low light in the dark of the house where Donghos sister lives.

Even when Kyulkyung was supposed to be dead, that wench was still causing trouble. The cop slowly swirled his drink looking into the that far distance of the city that looked small, before taking a sip. Only the natural light of the night sky would shine on the mans rugged, unkind face.

Dongho was now in the way, he was getting so involved so much, that the man could no longer ignore it. That kid was starting to figure out too much.

He had known that Kang had been more or less literally digging this cold case up for a long time. In fact, Dongho had been carefully watched ever since he had correctly tracked down the scrap of the car. The owners of the yard were paid by him to give a call in case an outsider would ever try to put their nose in any of his business.

That brat was clever and actually showed potential of solving the case by himself, even with the hurdles that had been carefully placed in his way by the cop himself. Now Kang posed a threat to him.

Yet how foolish had he been to come to his brother in-law to ask for his help, unknowingly Kang had walked straight into the lions den. He was literally just asking to be put in his place, even if he was the brother of his own wife.

A phone buzzed inside the mans pocket, he put his unfinished glass aside to retrieve the cell. With the press of his thumb he answered the call.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter 17 any carats online

When she was younger, Kyulkyung had no clue what path in life she wanted to take from there, which university or major to pick. Much like all other young adults, right after getting out of a high school she was like a blank page.

Yet the windows of future possibilities appeared to be a little more open for her. Her grades were excellent all across the board, she was a born genius with privileged academies all welcoming her with open arms. She could get into any school she were to apply to, even the luxury ones far abroad.

However then later in life, instead of enrolling into any university, she ended up always being surrounded by hospitals, she spent time there so much that it was all she ever got to see beside of her own house. Since then, choosing the path of medicine and treatment came easy to her.

Kyulkyung sat in a familiar patients room that felt a little bit like a second home for her now, however this whole time it wasn’t her that was sick. 

She sat bedside of her friend, who laid motionless in their bed while plugged onto bunch of important machinery just to keep them alive for longer. 

A monitor occasionally beeped in the background, like the sound of a ticking clock, Kyulkyungs brain had already learned to zone it out from existence by now. An air humidifier was angrily hissing in the back.

“Nayoung, I got something for you!” Kyulkyung cheered, holding an object hidden in her lap.

Her friend was unresponsive, stuck in a comatose state, but Kyulkyung believed that even if her friend couldn’t hear her, at least she could still feel her presence in the room somehow.

She looked so small, body hidden under the duvets, tubes reaching up to her neck and into her body, obstructing full view of her face. Her shaven head was hidden behind bandages and a cute pink cap, handpicked by Kyulkyung herself.

“Ta-dah!” Kyulkyung presented an expensive photo camera to her best friend, something she had been saving up for a long time now.

Before the accident Nayoung was taking up photography she was going to do it professionally, and earn money by doing so. But right now she was stuck on a long waiting list for an important organ donor, left with no money that could even cover the costs.

Nayoung and Kyulkyung were pretty much on their own, they both shared their income, none of their parents were present in their lives. They were orphans.

“When you get out of the hospital this is going to be yours!” Kyulkyung teased her friend who was sleeping soundly. Not even an eyelash had moved on Nayoungs face in response.

“I can’t leave this at the hospital, so I am going to keep it for now!” She waved the rich object in her hands for another brief moment before stuffing it back into her ripped purse that was almost close to breaking apart already.

Kyulkyung was all dressed up today, wearing a short dress. There was an opening ceremony happening at her new university that she did not want to go to, it meant that shed have to greet and shake hands with a lot of important people, giving them fake smiles, while leaving poor Nayoung by herself back here.

But then again, Nayoung would probably hate her if she missed out on her studies just to stay back nurse her. Kyulkyung could already imagine the amount of nagging her girlfriend would be doing if she could speak right now.

Kyulkyung apologized to the other woman for the last time and rushed out just to make it to the student event. Nayoungs hand was abandoned and cold left on top of the duvet where Kyulkyung had been holding it.

The main ceremonial hall of the university was buzzing with voices of people, important speakers and high public figures took turns coming up on stage and making vague quotes about the importance of education and some more nonsense about teaching the brightest of minds in this very university. Kyulkyung wanted to yawn wide.

She glanced at the speakers only to recognize their names, faces and ranks, completely zoning out their speeches until it was time to give applause. Kyulkyungs eyes kept poking down at her phone, conversations with her new school friends on the screen were more interesting than those happening around her in person.

She heard a mans voice speak into the mic up next, it was very deep and unpleasant, like he was speaking through a cough, except that was his normal voice. It was yet another high ranking police official representing the state police who had ties with the university.

Kyulkyung quickly averted her gaze and went back to her phone, in the sea of hundreds of seats she was just another bored face looking down to the shine in their lap.

After the event was over, Kyulkyung did not stick around to schmooze like all the other desperate students wanting to break into the ranks of their chosen future working fields. She was going straight to her parking spot to drive back to the hospital as soon as she could.

The clicking of her high heels echoed in the hallow hall of the underground parking space. She tried to walk quickly because her feet were starting to swell in her shoes, Nayoungs foot size did not match hers at all.

However, instead of ruining the shoes and her own ability to walk any further, she decided to just remove her heels and skip the last few meters to the car barefoot. The clicking had stopped, her walk became silent like that of a cat.

Kyulkyung unlocked the car and carefully placed her purse into the front passenger seat, because it still had Nayoungs gift in it, but before getting in for some reason her eyes shot up noticing a muffled argument happening inside of another car nearby.

There was a threatening, bossy voice of a woman, throwing all sorts of insults at someone who probably deserved it from the sounds of it. The windows were tinted dark on the sides, so she couldn’t really see too well and just quickly went back to looking for something else she could wear instead of heels. 

In the front glove compartment she found plastic shoe covers, those worn in hospitals, and decided to just stretch them over her feet as is. Throwing the heels out back.

When she was all done and packed right in the drivers seat, she again had subconsciously looked up at the same car from before. She almost yelped from what she saw then, but covered her own mouth just in time for it not to make a sound.

The argument of the other car had ended abruptly, turns out it had been in-between an older man and a younger woman. The man had possibly hit her or done something so that the woman was now unconscious, getting dragged out of his car by him.

No, she wasn’t simply knocked out, her eyes were wide open, bloodshot red, bruises on her neck pointing to a possibly crushed larynx – she had been strangled.

That crazy bastard had killed her. Kyulkyung stared to see who the guy was and immediately recognized his face, it was the same police man who had done the speech.

There was literally no one around the parking lot and she was afraid to step out alone, instead she immediately grabbed to her phone to call the cops, only to find it out of battery. She panicked, rummaging through her bag for a charger, instead Nayoungs new photo camera came into her hand.

Without a second thought Kyulkyung began to snap high quality photos of the crime to at least have some proof.

The man was gentle with the woman’s body, posing it up against the parking lot wall to try and alter the site of the crime, making it look like she had died outside and not inside of his car. The murderer held a tissue over his hand before he searched through her purse, taking her wallet and switched off phone to make it look like she had been victim of a mugging gone wrong.

Kyulkyung snapped it all, each and every frame of the act. The officer raised his head again to check around the parking lot for any witnesses, and unfortunately his and Kyulkyungs eyes had met behind the dark, reflective glass of the car.

In fear for her life, the woman covered her face and just ran the engine, her tires began screeching as she swirled out of the parking lot heading straight for the busy streets where he could not follow her car.

Kyulkyung was driving while sweating, she didn’t know where to even go now or how to report her findings to the police. But on her way to a station a wicked thought had crossed mind, and she ended up taking a road turn instead.

She realized that the man was high in rank and had a reputation for being a defender of safety in all of country. He probably had a lot of cash too and Kyulkyung surely really needed some right now. There wasn’t nearly enough money to keep paying for Nayoungs list of medical expenses yet to come, and realistically Kyulkyung could never earn that much all by herself in a lifetime. If Nayoung didn’t get a donor soon she would die.

Kyulkyung had a choice that she couldn’t easily pass up on, despite justice, she had decided to blackmail that scum. Perhaps with this money not only could she get her girlfriend out of the hospital, but secure a good life for the two in the future as well.

 

Soon the police official began to receive the first rounds of threats – copies of some of the photos delivered in a neat envelope directly to his office desk. More demands soon followed up, the man could not ignore them or else the sender would begin to leak this to the tabloids.

He gave in and sent Kyulkyung the first payment, one of many more to come just to keep Kyulkyung silent for now. Her identity was already known to him, yet he could not do a darn thing about her or even confront her in person knowing she would use anything to blackmail him more. She became relentless and sly to get what she wanted.

 

The wedding day of the police man came, he was getting married to a top graduate of a medical school, one of the best current young surgeons in the country. It was going to be the perfect marriage, as long as his perfect wife had no clue about his dirty past.

The wedding was grand, every column, wall was secured with a bouquets of flowers, ribbons wearing a golden lining. His dear wife looked like a swan, her wedding dress tight and fitting at the top, and fluffy like a cloud at the bottom following behind her in a trail as she greeted the many guests.

The man was also busy by giving his guests smiles, shaking many hands. Not only families had gathered to the wedding, but also many notable officials and the elite, including doctors, as well as heads of the police state and their families.

A nearly dressed waitress approached him, handing the man an envelope, “Sir, a guest told me to hand you this wedding present.”

“A present?” The man took the anonymous envelope. Something irked him about it, it was marked with a bright lipstick stain. 

He decided to better open it now rather to just pile it with all other wedding gifts, to avoid having to open it later together with his wife, as they would review the gifts.

Indeed, his suspicions where right. He only got to see the edge of the paper held inside, a developed photo of his own crime. 

His eyebrows twitched, an angry throbbing vein sank out of his skin from his temple. The man rolled his eyes, thinning his own lips before shoving the letter inside of his own suit. The angry eyes of the groom then scanned the room looking for the one who had done this, landing on the woman dressed in all black hiding her smirk under a large black hat amongst all other guests.

He had already bribed her with so much money, she was now shamelessly showing up wearing expensive jewelry and clothes, still demanding even more money to keep herself shut.

The woman needed it to save up for her big escape with Nayoung. Her surgery had been successful, she was slowly recovering, but that did not mean her health instantly improving. There would be complications in the future, Kyulkyung was out for more money just to be safe, as safe as one can be.

Pleased with that reaction, the woman rose from her seat to walk around, enjoy her time here and perhaps swallow some vine to cool off.

Kyulkyung didn’t ever like weddings too much, they were strange to her, especially if purposely made this flashy. It was like the groom and the bride were using the event as an excuse to just flaunt their wealth and impress the important guests, not doing it as a token of love.

Among of all the rich snobs and elderly cops coming with their wives wearing gold and silver hanging from every hole in their bodies, were some people that really stood out, they didn’t look like all others.

Two young males were standing around a chocolate fountain trying to figure out how it worked. Each time the shorter one tried to dip his finger in it the other slapped his hand away like a protective parent.

Of course their rental suits weren’t the in the right sizes and they itched all over, throughout the whole wedding they wouldn’t stop scratching themselves or one another, not ever interacting with any other of the guests.

Only the bride came to talk to them for a while, she scolded the shortest for something, referring to him as her youngest brother. The boy lowered his head like a sad puppy, and for the rest of the event the two sat the furthest away from the front, excluding themselves for standing out too much to be present at such a posh event.

Kyulkyung kept a close eye on the men, particularly the younger brother of the bride. She compared him to the groom, who she had been blackmailing, and right on the spot had developed another sick plan to pressure more money out of the cop.

She would then after get herself close with the family of the cop, making him fear her even more now that she was practically part of his life now with no way to remove her. Able to reveal the truth at any point.

 

It had been some time since Dongho had proposed to Kyulkyung, the poor guy was actually going to go for marrying her still unaware that she was only with him to further insert herself into the life of the man she had been blackmailing.

It wasn’t like she hated the guy though, in fact she was quite fond of him. Dongho was a good kid, it was such a shame that she had to use him and take advantage of how naïve he was.

Kyulkyung sat by the wide wall window of her apartment looking onto the blue lights of the night city. She was drinking tonight, treating herself with a proper wineglass of something posh, her makeup hair and a luxurious dress all done up for this special occasion – another payroll.

The second figure approached her by the window, interrupting her lonesome. The other woman was dressed up just as nicely as her, also celebrating. It was Nayoung.

“Why the sour face?” The other woman spoke for the first time, breaking into a small sad smile seeing her partner in crime stare off so coldly into space.

Kyulkyun snapped out of it, “I’m going to have to get rid of Kang, he is getting too close.” She stated.

Nayoung nodded to herself, starting to smile in a teasing way at her towards friend, only prompting her to explain further, “By that I mean, if he keeps getting involved too much, he will find out about you, and then—”

Kyulkyung silenced herself, she didn’t even wish to mention the possibility of that guy throwing a wrench into her perfect plan in order to not jinx herself on it.

“How are you going to break up with him?” The other woman pointed her pinky at the big jewel ring to Kyulkyungs hand. The engaged woman wholeheartedly shrugged.

“I’ll think of something that will get him off my tail for sure.” Kyulkyung ended her promise with a wink.

She raised her hand to look at the pretty engagement ring on her finger, “But truth be told, I am going to miss this though.”

“Just keep it.” Nayoung recommended.

Kyulkyung grew a wide smirk, “Then, should I keep wearing it?” Nayoung appeared to have something else on her mind, that sly look in her eyes served as an early spoiler for what it was, “Actually,”

She began, “After you break up with him, we should get back together.” Nayoung spoke with confidence, not trying to hide the way she had felt about her friend from the very beginning.

Kyulkyung turned her face away to laugh, before turning back and making a hard nod, “You might have to wait a bit on that.”

It was Nayoung who laughed this time, holding up her drink to cheer to the other. The two clinked their glasses and sipped at once, while the bright, shining city blurred behind their shadowy figures.

 

A door slammed shut, beeping once before it had automatically locked itself shut. A body rest leaning up against it, panting and wheezing for breath as coming out of a fight.

Officer Kwak looked up at the two slippers standing before him and when looking up even more, he met Mingi, who was already rubbing his tired eyes out of the crust. “Aaron do you have any idea how late it is?”

The startled man didn’t even realize what his friend was talking about, but as soon as he saw him, his arms launched to hug the frail little guy in his arms for safety. “Wah!” Mingi jumped to be fully awake.

“What on earth is wrong with you?” He pushed the shorter male off from himself, angrily shaking his shoulders to get off any grime the guy might have put on him.

“Mingi, he saw me. He totally saw me!” Aaron freaked out, “He had this murderous dog snare on his face, I felt like he was going to seriously kill me!”

Mingi looked away, counting things in his head in order to remember, “The suspect?” Aaron frantically shook his head to confirm.

The tallest drew his eyes to Aarons small clenched fist trembling in place while gripping his cellphone. Whenever he monitored Dongho and Jonghyun, the young cop was meant to sent updates to some number that kept relaying specific instructions back to him.

It wasn’t disclosed to Aaron who he was in contact with, he only assumed it to be a fellow cop, or someone higher up who could totally get him fired from the force in under a minute if he was ever to make a mistake. 

Aaron had obediently followed his peers now the same way back in his hometown, who had originally requested of him to provide information about his old school mate. Yet the guy was too blind to even notice that something was so strangely off about this.

“Did you report it?” The tallest demanded. “No way! How can I tell anyone I messed up that bad?” Aaron admitted he was too much of a coward, “He wasn’t supposed to see me, or recognize me, but he did!”

Aaron was acting weird, his voice stuck broken in between an angry yell and a sob. “But I am going to have to keep following him!”

Mingi didn’t like it one bit, he hated all of it. “Stop. No more of this, okay?” He begged his friend to just drop it and go back to being a normal cop.

His advice was shot down in less than a second after being said, “What do you mean no more?” Aaron was enraged, “I’m finally earning money. I’m the one paying to keep you from being bedridden again, damnit.”

After realizing what he had said his voice fell, only exhausted pants caused by his excess yelling existed into the apartment that had gone silent. 

“Oh?” Mingi was dazed from the attack, he looked to a point on the floor, taking a step back from the door, and subsequently Aaron too. 

Now Aaron felt horrible, “No, I didn’t mean that. You know that, right?” Mingi was silent, his head low pretending not to listen, pretending that he was not hurt by the angry words of his best friend.

Aaron changed his tone, growing desperate to prove something, “Listen, once we save enough money we get the hell out of here, okay?” He promised, regaining the one lost step in distance in-between him and Mingi.

“Just you and me. We pack our shit and move out to California where no one will ever dare to find us. That is what you wanted right?” Aaron tried to speak the right words to regain his friends trust, or at least have the man look at him in the eyes again.

With that Aaron had pretty much admitted himself that he had noticed that the whole thing was corrupt, that someone was using him – a rookie police officer from a meaningless department in some forgotten town – as a puppet and a spy for someone with evil intentions.

Mingi hated Aaron being involved in this, even if it was for his own treatment, even if this allowed them to stay close to one another, Mingi had never agreed to Aaron sacrificing himself for all of that.

“You won’t.” Mingi found his words on the ground, pulling up his dead stare to turn them into a threat, “You won’t participate in this anymore. Tell them that you are done.”

Aaron was lost, because even if he wanted to quit he could not. He was unsure what would be done to him, career wise or otherwise, if he suddenly stopped obeying these orders.


	18. Chapter 18

Small droplets of rain dotted large glass windows the unpopulated city streets, from the indoors the rainfall sounded like mere background static. Even more so it was getting drowned out somewhere in the distance of ambient music played inside of a local café.

That quiet athmostfare was abruptly cut off when the door pushed open with a loud creak, and the guy coming in came close to almost tripping over the carpeting in hurry to wipe his shoes before walking in.

Out of all options and with nothing better to do these days either, Dongho had decided to meet up with that weirdo who had offered his help earlier. Hwang Minhyun, or whatever his name was, Dongho could still not remember, because he had deemed it not that important. 

The tall male already long sat inside, lips puckered around a straw dipped into a sweet foamy drink while he himself sat with his back snapped straight and waiting for the strangers late arrival. 

Kang almost didn’t recognize the other man, in the past two or three days he had entirely forgotten about his face – a wide, pearl white grin and eyes that shut when he smiled.

Upon greeting him, the man then scanned his eyes behind Dongho, checking the windows and doors for anyone else who could be eavesdropping on them during this meeting.

“Did you see anyone following you in the car, perhaps?” Minhyun acted coy, making Dongho even more upset about him not listening to this jerk warning him before.

“No.” He grunt and then sat down. “That’s a relief.” Minhyun returned the gesture as a smile, which Dongho took as an insult.

“How can you be so calm?” He demanded to the tall boy. After finding out he was being stalked by a rouge cop Dongho could not get a wink of sleep. Plus, he didn’t even know how to talk to Jonghyun about this either.

He vent about all of it, “The more steps I take to find out what really happened back there in that town, the more roadblocks coincidentally get in my way of ever finding out, and now I’ve stinking cops investigating me too.”

Dongho continued to speak calmer when finding some relief that Minhyun was now giving him an understanding, worried look, “Maybe I should just drop it, don’t poke at the bees nest.” The short male admitted.

Normally Kang would never give up something once he had started it, but now that he had Jonghyun in his life who had to be cared for, he had given it a second thought. Dongho didn’t want to endanger the man over his own foolish actions, that jerk had gone through so much already and deserved none of this to begin with.

“You shouldn’t give up!” Minhyun sounded like he was about to hammer down his fist on the table if Dongho didn’t listen to him.

“Even if you and Kyulkyung didn’t have the most perfect relationship, she was still wrongfully murdered and that is an innocent human live lost.” Minhyun was adamant, “We all deserve to know the tyrant who did this, if not, Kyulkyung will never see justice!”

Dongho winced his eyebrows together into an angry line, but before he could interrupt Minhyun spoke again, only this time in a much deeper tone of voice, “What if her killers strike again and kill another innocent?”

His particular words affected Dongho, because in that moment for some reason all he could think of was Jonghyun and how it would hurt ten times, hundred times worse to lose him than his ex. If it were to happen, Dongho couldn’t imagine himself trying to investigate who did it. He would break down, rot away at his own home never getting up from his bed.

“I know you are scared Dongho, but I am willing to help.” Minhyun consoled the other man, but his sharp teeth shined through his lips when he spoke, as if he was secretly trying to hold away a smirk.

Dongho didn’t trust Minhyun, not one bit. He hated how much the bastard reminded him of Kyulkyung too, the way they both spoke in that sly, dubious tone, as if they were reeling information out of you without you even knowing. 

Something was definitely wrong about this guy, but Dongho still found himself nodding anyways, impacted by his word of advice to look out for Jonghyun.

“Well then,” Minhyun straightened his back again blinking his eyes at the confused and slightly shaken Dongho, “I am guessing you came here to ask me if Nayoung could have done it?”

“Yes?” Dongho raised an eyebrow, seeing that the bastard was trying to imply something he wasn’t yet aware of. His hunch was correct when Minhyun began apologizing.

“Truth be told, I have no idea and I don’t even know where she has gone either, the last I heard she has moved abroad already just like everyone else.” Minhyun threw apologetic smiles at the other, “But let me propose to you something else you might find useful instead!”

Dongho almost wanted to rush up from his seat and ruin the face of that lying jerk, but his proposition influenced for him to take a short moment of reconsideration.

“I can lead you to the house where the two had moved to live together recently, right before Nayoung had, you know, allegedly left the country. He winked, “Not only that, but I can let you inside.”

“A house? How could Kyulkyung afford to have a house?” Dongho asked in doubt, but his trusting glare still shot up at the stranger, “Then what are you waiting for, give me the address and the keycode, punk.”

The tall boy raised sudden panic in his voice, “Kang, you need to let me go with you.” He kindly asked the other who blinked at least ten times trying to understand the other man.

“Why do you want to accompany me?” Dongho raised suspicion, believing that the tall man would be more than capable of hitting the back of his head with a pan inside of the location to rob him.

“For safety?” He argued, “It would be easier to spot out if we were being followed with two people in the car, so you could focus on keeping your eyes on the road instead.”

The creepy bastard somehow already knew that he had come by a car, Dongho wasn’t feeling this, but seemingly otherwise Hwang would not agree to show him the house. 

Despite disagreements, the two headed for the suburbs together, Dongho also took his advice and kept an eye out periodically looking into his rearview mirror for any more cops.

 

The pair had traveled far to a place that was way past the outskirts of the city, hidden away behind tall trees and empty grass lots. They arrived at an old wooden house that resembled a large three story cottage, a fresh layer of paint had been laid down recently, not even a year ago, perhaps not even as far as half a year ago. Someone had been living here recently, but now it was all empty and seemingly abandoned. 

Dongho got the chills coming near it, the shot male pulled his phone out to quickly text Jonghyun and his reply was instant. 

The guy sucked at texting because he was still quite old fashioned, but in a way it was cute. Jonghyun always ended his messages with the words – Love you, and out of obligation Dongho ended up replying with – I love you too. Not realizing that this was his first confession to the other man, who was probably dying of joy, kicking his legs around in the hospital bed right now.

The shortest shoved his phone back into his pocket and caught up with Minhyun, who had already clumsily hopped a small pole fence way ahead of him. Like a tiger Dongho leaped over the same pole in a split second hop and ran to the other who was suspiciously smiling at him way ahead at the porch.

When caught up, Minhyun danced his fingers across the keypad, a beep happened and the door automatically clicked unlocked. The tall male listed the keycode out loud so Dongho could memorize it too.

“How do you know the door code to her house?” Dongho raised an evil eye at the guy, suspecting him and Kyulkyung could’ve at one point been more than just friends to know such a thing, but he wasn’t jealous.

The tallest shrugged uninterested, “She always uses the same group of numbers, just in different combinations.”

“A birthday?” Dongho guessed, watching the other nod to confirm. “Matches Nayoungs birthday.”

Dongho grew a jealous lines on his forehead thinking about how many people did that woman possibly date, while he couldn’t even trick anyone into dating him for over a week.

The two stepped into an empty dark house where none of the light switches worked and freshly made cobwebs already drooped from the ceiling after two months of no maintenance. It was less inviting on the inside than It was on the outside.

Minhyun turned on a flashlight on his phone, suggesting Dongho to do the same as the windows appeared to be entirely boarded up off throughout the whole house.

The house was eerie, filled with hallways that lead to rooms with doors shut closed. Their circles of light trailed the interior as they further investigated the surroundings. Floorboards were authentic, real wood flooring had been laid down back when the house had been first built, polished like brand new. 

Yet with every step something creaked or something tickled behind Donghos neck of the shirt. The guy hated this place, unlike Minhyun who feared nothing and only mocked him.

There were cords and wires left on the floor leading to upstairs, Minhyun theorized they might have been left here since the building renovation. Dongho decided not follow to see where they lead up until he had explored the first floor yet.

Everything in it looked like it had been abandoned for quite dome time, even the shutters on all the windows were all closed up behind the curtains. Whoever lived here had prepared to leave entirely, or perhaps even more plausible, make it look like they had left forever, it surely matched with the fake story of Nayoung moving abroad. 

Every shelf had been wiped clear of any belongings, not even rotten food remained in the shut down fridge. Furniture was left exposed to the dust.

Minhyun lead the other man to the second floor, guiding him with the flash of his phone. Dongho really hated the sound of those steps creaking under his weight, yet even then, so far the only actually scary thing he had encountered was a wall mounted mirror hiding in the dark frightening him with a reflection of himself.

The bedrooms were present on this floor inside of one of them stood an unusual looking bed, one normally present in hospitals. It had been too big to move out so it had been left here.

Dongho scratched his chin, shining his light at it sitting eerie and empty in middle of a mansion. The other man noticed that Kangs phone had been pointed at it for long.

“This is Nayoungs room or, was. She was very ill.” Minhyun spoke quietly as if the walls could hear him talk behind the woman’s back. 

“How sick was she?” Dongho repeated that word in the same intonation as him.

“She needed to find an organ donor, till then machines used to keep her alive.” Minhyun scanned the place with his own flash, empty shelves existed beside the bed meant for holding expensive medical equipment.

“In the footage I saw she looked healthier by then.” Dongho found himself feeling bad for this stranger he had never met. 

“Yeah, she got lucky.” Minhyun spoke, quickly leaving the room, yet Donghos voice forbid him from another step.

“Was all of this – mansion and home treatment stuff funded by Nayoung?” Dongho spoke once more, “Kyulkyung was only a university student, and no where near to able to afford a two story house for herself and a friend.” 

He was speaking to Minhyun while mockingly shined his light at the back of the guys head. A gigantic, large shadow of his head cast across the whole wall directly in front of him.

The tall man chewed his lip like he was about to say something, but decided not to and proceeded to leave the room, acting as if he had not heard Donghos question.

There was nothing much else to look at in this big house, and trying to talk to Minhyun about anything that Dongho actually wanted to talk about was like talking directly to a wall of bricks. 

This guy was either hiding something, or actually just that annoying and Dongho couldn’t properly place his bet at the time.

Before tracing back Dongho had stopped at a tight wall encased spiral staircase at the end of a hall, “Hey does this go any further up?” He shone light at the hatch at the top, dust would flutter in motion above as there was wind pushing through from the other side.

“Third floor is the attic room, I don’t think it leads anywhere structurally.” Minhyun stuck his neck out to yell down from the other side of same hall.

Disobeying the nod to leave, the shortest kept looking into the forbidden crawlspace for long. So long that Dongho didn’t even hear the same bastard sneak up behind him. 

Minhyun made him jump with his cheerful voice, “Want to see the garage?” 

Dongho caught his with his hand chest in relief, for a split second he had thought that Minhyun would actually hit him on the back of his head right then. He reluctantly followed the guy to where he was going to, throwing mumbled curses behind Hwangs back as the two progressed back to the first floor, reaching what actually looked like a garage. 

There were some empty boxes laying around on the floor, misplaced and some even stepped on. Looks like in the end the house inhabitants had decided to leave in a hurry after all.

Other than that It was entirely swept clean of anything noteworthy, only faint tire marks on the ground remained where the car had once stood.

Dongho felt particularly weird and tingly standing here when imagining himself right by hus ex’s car as Kyulkyung would have packed everything and driven off to meet Jonghyun right after texting himfirst. However her plan never came to be.

Dongho shook his head back to the present, soon realizing the whole house had been checked, and shone his light right back at Minhyun to scold him. “There is nothing in the house, no clues. This feels like a waste of time.” He whined.

Minhyun shrugged his shoulders away from the other, going to open the garage entrance door for Dongho to leave. “I didn’t promise you would find anything here.” The tallest now spoke with his back facing the other.

A light from outside crossed over the garage when the door opened, Minhyuns frame turned dark in the doorway in front of the bright sunlight reaching in. Dongho squint his eyes and turned off his flash.

The shortest had at least hoped there would be something here to go off of, but it looked like the empty mansion had not much to offer for him, Kyulkyung had covered her tracks well. She must have been positive she would get to Jonghyun before anything could happen to her.

A prior suggestion Jonghyun had made suddenly resurfaced in Donghos mind – perhaps she really had been chased by loan sharks, the same type who had broken Jonghyun. But at the same time, that made no sense. Kyulkyung wasn’t irresponsible enough to carry out a loan from criminals just to buy herself a grand cottage on the tip of the town. Dongho reconsidered his guess, not being able to come to a proper conclusion like always.

“One more thing Kang, please?” Now it was Minhyuns turn to ask for favors, Dongho should’ve have guessed this already, nothing ever comes for free.

“I’m guessing this is why you insisted in coming out here with me instead of letting me investigate the place on my own?” Dongho sighed big time.

“Well,” Minhyun turned around to face Dongho who was still standing deep in the dark of the room, his body language spoke of distrust.

“I did have to make sure you would not mess up the property or take something from it.” Minhyuns long shadow looked warped wiggling on the floor when the guy laughed hard.

Dongho snort, “Why would you care so much?” Minhyun stopped his cackle, and quickly shook his head in disappointment, “You are clearly ignoring the fact that I was once her friend as well.”

“I don’t believe it.” Dongho spoke in a low silent voice too distant from Hwangs ears. But the tall boy was sharp, he registered Donghos remark.

“I honestly don’t blame you for not knowing anything about this, if she never told you about me or Nayoung, or anyone else for that matter.” Minhyun made an evil, mocking laugh, “But I truly wonder, why didn’t she?”

Dongho wanted to punch him so bad his knuckles were literally throbbing to be used. But he calmed himself before ever actually throwing his fists, “What is it that you want? Speak.”

Minhyun cleared his throat, “Can you give me Jonghyuns contact information, so I could meet him in person at his hometown?”

Dongho shot his jaw to the side, his response was quick and piercing, like a flash of lightning, “He doesn’t live there anymore. We are together now.”

Minhyun tilted his head like a cat trying to hear, “Together? Living together?” Then Dongho spoke even quicker, more agitated, “We are dating now, so he lives with me. What do you want from him?”

Minhyuns words became slow and mind full of though, “Huh, I could’ve never seen that one coming?” Before Dongho could even ask what the heck did the prick mean by that, Minhyun had already gotten himself back on track to continue.

“I just want to speak with him, in private if you don’t mind!” He claimed.

Dongho remained quiet, only his angry eyebrows of confusion had moved on his face since the question. “I am not suspecting him calm down big guy!” Minhyun had to promise the man to convince him.

“You can’t speak with him, he is in hospital.” Dongho decided to just shoot Minhyun down, not wanting to involve Jonghyun anymore.

“Which hospital?” Minhyun automatically switched to next question, ignoring Donghos lack of wish to communicate anymore. “Piss off.” Dongho began to walk towards the door.

Minhyun jolted away from the doorframe as the brute brushed past him. “You are not holding up your end of the deal!” He whined into the other mans ear.

Although, the guy didn’t even look back on his way to the car. Minhyun had to rush to lock the doors before the bastard could decide to drive off back to the city without him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> obligatory hwang minhyun chapter


	19. Chapter 19

Dongho exhaled hard breaths into his palms before entering the patient room, that way he was trying to decide if Jonghyun would be able to tell he had smoked earlier.

The guy truly was trying not to, he had even lasted for such a long while ever since the two moved in together. But when Jonghyun was stuck in hospital like that, and he himself was constantly paranoid of being stalked by some noisy cop, Dongho couldn’t keep himself in check anymore.

Speaking of that cop, Dongho didn’t want to tell Jonghyun about that for now or not at least after he’s out of the hospital yet, as Kang didn’t want to involve his friend too much. Even if fear gripped him even thinking about it, if it came down to protecting Jonghyun from any cops by means of leaving him behind, Dongho would make that choice quick.

He walked in soon to find Jonghyun sitting up in his bed, as if he had already known his friend was standing behind the door. How could he have not noticed it, Jonghyun had been stuck in this room for days, so even the littlest of sounds became easy to attract his attention.

“Hey.” Dongho sat, receiving a nod from the other. “Did you sleep well, eat well?” The guy was acting more like a dad to the other rather than a friend.

“I’ll be out of here any day now, so you can stop worrying already.” Jonghyun laughed at the other who couldn’t hide his excitement from such a notion. 

“Really, should I already start decorating our new home then?” Dongho knew Jonghyun wouldn’t be out that soon, but he still played along.

“You mean, you still haven’t decorated?” Jonghyun raised a teasing brow, it couldn’t be seen beyond his thick bangs. 

Dongho shyly shook his head not wanting to directly admit that he hadn’t even taken care of all the light bulbs still missing, he had been too lazy to do even simple tasks like that.

Even if the two men sat together and talked a bit, there was still this giant invisible barrier of awkwardness. Jonghyun was too anxious to take Donghos hand in his even now, all kinds of doubts plagued him – like whether if the guy felt the same way about him, and if Jonghyun should call him boyfriend or a friend.

The same type of nervousness was brewing inside of Dongho too, he was a coward when it came to showing deep affection, plus he was so scared of being betrayed again, right after finding out that the love from his ex he got before was all fake.

But whenever Jonghyun smiled at him, he got this warm fuzzy sensation rubbing all over him, he wasn’t simply imagining it. It was different to when Dongho was with Kyulkyung, as if what he felt for Jonghyun was on a different level, that he could not even find the right words for to describe.

But this odd silence was making everything weird, so weird in fact, that the other only patient who had been present in the room alone with Jonghyun decided to get up and hop towards the door. The sound of it slamming shut made their eyes pop wide.

Jonghyun had to say something quickly, or else he would die of awkwardness, “Did you get to investigate anything on your own while I’m gone?” The guy was unable to think of anything else, not like the two men even had ever had the time to ever speak about anything else but this.

The sudden question made Donghos armpits ready to sweat again, “Ah, that? I haven’t been thinking about it a lot.” The man blatantly lied in attempt to not stress his friend while he was on medication in a hospital.

“What?” Jonghyun was taken aback by it, “I thought you said you won’t give up?” He whined in a sulking voice.

Actually, by now Dongho was seriously reconsidering giving up, because in a way Kyulkyung had hidden her tracks too well, it was nearly impossible to find anything without crossing lines of law, like when they had stolen that CCTV feed. Even back then, they had barely gotten away with that. Considering the police taking interest in what Dongho has been doing as well, maybe stopping now would indeed be safest choice.

Although, they had gotten so far, it was such a shame Dongho could not finish what he had once started. Two months ago was when he had started to uncover the truth, those two months of dedication were all for nothing.

“We will talk over this once you are out of the hospital first.” Dongho suddenly turned a cold shoulder to Jonghyun and the tall male didn’t like it one bit.

“You are purposely leaving me out of if Dongho.” He accused his friend. “No, I am not.” The guy barked in his own defense, his lies just kept piling up and Jonghyun was starting to see through.

“Why do you not want my help anymore?” Jonghyun was starting to sound almost desperate, believing Dongho was making an attempt to push him away. This was only because Jonghyuns rational thought was shrouded by his own insecurities.

“Because I don’t want you to get hurt doing it!” Dongho answered so angry that something must of have fallen from a shelf in the background of the argument. They both could hear a pen sized object clink and roll away on the floor.

“Whatever.” Jonghyun sulked, removing his feet from dangling off the bed and pulled himself up to his pillow, sitting all curled up. Dongho sighed, observing his friend from afar acting in such a childish manner.

“Why are we even fighting?” Jonghyun spoke, his nervous eyes glaring from beneath his long bangs at Dongho who had just yelled, “We shouldn’t fight.”

“You are right. I am sorry.” Dongho regret and apologized, following Jonghyun in bed to apparently lay beside him. Just like that, Jonghyun forgave him.

The two bodies laid facing one another in the small space, gazing at one another, their tired eyes slowly opening and closing in sync with their quiet breaths. Dongho shifted his arm close in between them, spreading out a hand over Jonghyuns chest, holding it pressed down above the place in his body where his lungs were.

He began to monitor the boys breaths, some were normal, some were short. But maybe Jonghyun was just nervous, like he was always nervous. The tallest let the hand warm him, that way it almost felt like he was being healed where he was broken.

Before anyone could return to the room any minute to cut their embrace short, the two had the same idea. Dongho had a little more courage to rush ahead, he met his own lips with Jonghyuns for just two seconds and quickly retreated in fear of a nurse discovery.

Jonghyun lingered in the moment for a bit, reopening his eyes only after more time had passed and Dongho wanted to do it again, but he always heard footsteps outside that kept him on edge.

Jonghyun teased the blushing male, “You smell like an ashtray, you know that?” Dongho suddenly remembered what he was trying to hide from Jonghyun before coming here, but now somehow he had forgotten all about it.

 

It wasn’t snowing anymore, and the weather wasn’t as miserable as it once had been around the city of Seoul. The streets were much cleaner of mud compared to back in hometown and the rain was starting to become rare. Perhaps the spring was actually coming to finally do its work.

Near a late night hour, Aaron woke up all of a sudden pained by a weight pressing down on him, weight of another man. He blinked his eyes open finding Mingi nested on the couch beside him, for some reason he had abandoned his own bed to be with his friend. 

The boy hugged him so tightly in his sleep afraid to let the cop go. Aaron gave in and just let the guy have his way, because judging by the lack of snoring, Mingi was probably faking being asleep right now too – as always, that sly prick.

A gentle hand raised to pat the head of the sleeping male, Aarons fingers got lost deep in the others long soft hair. The guy used to like it when people would touch his hair, but now he only let Aaron do it.

After leaving the hospital, Mingi was refusing to cut his hair now that he had finally had the chance to regrow it. There were still rough patches where the hair grew out at an awkward angle because of the scarring. 

Calmly and carefully, his friend traced the biggest scar with his finger, a thick line looping around the back of the scalp, the place where his head had once been split into two and stitched back together with scary metal screws.

Since that accident Mingi still got frequent, lasting seizures due to traumatic brain injury he had suffered. No matter how much time passed, they were said to continue and go on to affect him for the rest of his life, because no pill or prayer could ever make it go away. Aaron felt powerless, the only thing he could do was just to be there for him each time it happened, and take care of him for days after.

All of this happened after a mall building collapse, Mingi just happened to be at the wrong place and at the wrong time, he didn’t deserve this. After the country police lead investigations, it was found that there nothing was wrong with the building safety regulations and no rules were broken during construction. 

However Aaron had no reason to believe it, because buildings don’t just collapse on their own. He promised to himself to become a better, more honest cop than them.

The compensations to the victims and families rolled out late. The sum that Mingi got was less than one third of his total medical expenses, despite the fact that the man would never be able to live comfortably ever again. Thus knowing that one day his friend would eventually pass away before he could even see the end of his youth is made Aaron regret every single day he did not spend with Mingi.

That dream they once had of moving out to the hot state of California seemed so far from the truth by now. Mingi had even told Aaron to give it up already, but his friend politely refused still hoping for a miracle.

 

Aaron felt horrible for sneaking out that night, he had promised not to leave his friend by himself again, but the young cop believed that the money he would earn by doing this would only benefit them in the long run, because otherwise Aaron would just have to move away from the expensive Seoul and back into his hometown, unable to meet the cost of living.

In the dead of the night, he only left a note in case Mingi was to wake up, telling him not to worry again. The brave cop drove out, nervous and unsure what to expect from doing this. He stopped driving only once to grab himself a quick snack on his way, to at least not be anxious on an empty stomach.

Even later past the ghostly hour, his car finally came to a full halt. The cop was all alone on an empty street far from the city, he got out and walked two more streets down on foot arriving to the front of a big menacing house. The one he had seen Dongho and another male enter while he had been silently following them always one street behind them.

Aaron had already investigated the other male on his own, Hwang Minhyun. That name wasn’t hard to find, considering his acting portfolio easily listed everything, even his hobbies, weight and height on the online website of his agency. Although the cop couldn’t really make a clear connection in between those two men at all, due to their different occupations and no mutual friends. 

It was like they had just met, which made their meeting even more curious, when they choose to drive out miles from the heart of the city to meet inside a seemingly abandoned house.

Aaron had not yet reported these findings to his phone contact yet, because he wanted to make sure he did it right first, and not stop halfway only to have to announce his failure to the contact. Aaron really wanted this money no matter what, he had been promised a big sum if he made no mistake.

The house looked absolutely abandoned, all window shutters had been locked shut. Aaron had no idea about the security system though, or how would he go about going past it. But as a cop, if he were to get caught by neighbors, then he would at least have a small excuse for breaking in by flashing his badge at them.

Hoping he could just easily lock pick the door somehow, Aaron sneaked towards the front of the house. He had had learned how to unlock doors while in the police academy back in the states, but he wasn’t too sure if he would actually be able to perform something as elaborate on a real door, he had never even tried.

He carefully explored the surroundings for any cameras or sensors, because if any of that were to go blaring off on him, he’d surely just piss himself on the spot. The boy reached the door and found himself in front of a keypad only with keys from zero to nine and a sensor for a digital key as opposed to an actual key. 

Now his lock picking plans came to a short halt. Aaron thought that he was out of luck without the right equipment to unlock it until he noticed that there was miraculously already a gap in the door. 

The doorknob had not been pressed down for the door to fully close, denying it from auto locking once shut. Now that the observant cop thought about remembering how the two men had arrived here earlier, he did see them leave in a fair rush, so perhaps they had forgotten to double check.

Suddenly feeling brave, Aaron quickly put on a pair of cloth gloves and pressed forwards into the same house, turning on his flash to see into the deep dark. 

He was scared to bone being in here, especially at night time. At any point he could trip and fall unconscious, and nobody would know. Even worse, what if those guys had hid something here, like a closet full of skeletons and the cop came to finding it. Aarons skin began to feel all tingly and weird even thinking about such a possibility.

The cop was convinced that if he kept looking he might walk upon a piece evidence, perhaps a hidden murder weapon, important personal belongings taken from the site of murder.

His feet carefully followed after the circle of light from his cop flashlight, dust particles danced in front of the light. Upon entering each room, he began scanning the creaking dark oak floors, then the pale walls. At the end of one such a room tour, his light met in the middle of a dark doorway to point at something there. Aaron gasped in fear as a human face appeared before the light.

“Mingi?” Aarons heart dropped seeing him here of all places, the ill boy winced after the light had hit him directly in his eyes. 

“You almost gave me a heart attack, you jerk!” The tallest whined from the light. Aaron rushed to place his hand over his friends chest to calm his heart beat, forgetting where he was, “Oh no, not your heart.” He genuinely worried.

Mingi angrily shrugged him off, mad at him for breaking his promise like this again. Aaron spoke, “What are you doing in here?”

“I could to ask you the same thing.” He angrily replied in a sassy tone, putting the blame on Aaron as per usual. “How did you even get here, it’s late?” The cop was clueless.

“You went to eat at a fast food place you always go to before driving out here, so from there I just paid a cab driver to follow you.” Mingi bragged, making the cops eyes go wide. His best friend was blatantly committing actual crimes now and not even being shy of admitting it.

Aaron became so frustrated and whiny he went to stomp his feet, “Mingi you shouldn’t be here! Its dangerous!”

“I know it is, that’s why I came. You think I’d let you walk into something like this on your own?” Mingi snort, only for Aaron to cry louder for the second time, “Min—gi!” He dragged out the syllables of his friends name into an annoyingly long whine.

“I just simply wanted to see what was this all about.” The tallest shrugged as if coming out to a scary place like this was suddenly nothing to him, as long as he got the chance to bully his bestie. He was clearly not taking this break-in too seriously.

“Fine,” Aaron groaned, “I followed my suspect and another male to this location. I just found it very odd and wanted to check it out on my own, okay?”

Suddenly, before Aaron was even done speaking yet, Mingi suspiciously looked up after he thought he had heard something thud on the floor above them, his neck becoming long when facing the ceiling. 

“Why didn’t you just call it in? Let police deal with it.” He spoke while his chin was still arched at the sky.

Despite his wish, Aaron couldn’t call this in like a normal cop would, “Mingi, I do not have a warrant. I’m just going off a hunch.” He admitted his lack of professionalism.

“Trespassing is not a big crime right? Besides, you’re a cop.” Mingi shot his neck down to turn on his own phone flashlight back on.

With interest he began to view the house walls holding empty nails and wallpaper pale in spots where pictures had previously stood. The jerk was becoming oddly comfortable with the place, curious to explore it himself.

“We are breaking in!” Aaron almost shout for his friend to understand, but the guy had already become completely distracted by the architecture and soon began to walk around on his own, ignoring his cop friend.

Aaron had no idea what to do when this jerk was meddling with his job like this, because he couldn’t just shoo his friend and he couldn’t leave the house unexplored either.

The other guy was being fearless walking around dark hallways way ahead of Aaron, the fact that he was still so angry at his friend right now was fueling the sacredly cat Mingi to bravely step into the dark.

“What is this place?” Mingi scanned light around the dark rooms, he was surrounded by blank walls that all looked the same and tight hallways that lead in confusing circles.

“I’m not sure,” Aaron fought back not to bite the root of his fingernails over his glove, too anxious to even take one step further in fear that the floorboards would send out a bone rattling creak down the long dark hallway ahead. 

“I want to find that out too.” He spoke quietly, as if anyone could hear him in the empty house.

Aaron had to hold his breath when turning around pretty much every corner. His nose was peeking in first into every open doorframe in preparation for a grieving discovery, like another scene of murder. Yet so far he had been lucky.

The light of Mingis phone became far and his feet began to stomp as if he was running off to somewhere, Aaron whisper shouted his name, but the guy was quickly off into the darkness. 

The cop shined his flash up a staircase, only managing to catch the short glimpse of Mingis feet going up the steps. “Mingi!” He whispered again, gripping into the railing of the stairs.

“We shouldn’t go there!” Aaron was growing cold feet, suddenly he had decided that he would much rather like to just lose his job and instead of to go up to that wicked second floor at this point.

The scared cop huffed and puffed after soon pushing himself to chase after that clueless idiot, desperately shining his dinky cop light into every room along a long ominous hallway for him until he again met him inside of a bedroom.

There was a double bed, the mattress was bare, no sheets for it present in the room. Mingi pointed at it to his friend with a cheeky smile on his face, “Maybe your suspect came here to use this?”

“The two were both men.” Aaron corrected him, not expecting to be cackled at, “So? They could be like that with one another too, you know!”

Aaron turned away, ready to walk to the next room alone, but Mingis annoying voice stalked after him, “Imagine, two of them just cuddling in a hunted house. Aaron! That could be us, if only you weren’t so hard to look at.” He joked.

The next room over on the opposite side of the hall surprised them upon entry, Mingi suddenly stopped his laugh. It was equipped with a bed that looked like one straight out of a surgery room.

Mingi didn’t even think about not leaving his fingerprints on every surface of the house, rushing to the hospital like bed as soon as he saw it in awe. To Aaron it reminded of Mingis days in the hospital back when he had been laid down on same exact one while recovering from the life saving surgeries, those memories weren’t too good for him. 

The person using this probably had a serious condition as well. Now Aaron suddenly wanted to walk away, feeling bad for breaking in after realizing why the house was probably this empty and abandoned.

Mingi didn’t leave however, his head curiously tilted to the side and eyes lit up noticing something stuck below the bed, peeking out from under. He picked out a fuzzy blanket with a very distinct flower pattern on it, for some reason struck Mingi, because he remembered himself once having the same exact one.

Aaron shined his flash back at the man, trying to hurry him to leave together. The light he shined at his friend revealed Mingi in middle of smelling the said blanket, it smelled like it had been drenched in women’s perfume, a very familiar brand.

Mingi turned to Aaron, his mouth flapping open before any words had even come out yet, “Aaron, this is mine.” He said, pupils shrunk down to dots.

“Huh?” The short cop paused his walk out for a second to listen. “I used to have this before I gifted this to Im Nayoung while she was still unconscious after that accident, remember?” Mingi spoke like he had gone nuts.

Aaron scratched his head trying to remember, just as Mingi grew more horrified over time. “She has totally lived here!” The tallest announced in terror.


	20. Chapter 20

Some months ago before all of this, Kyulkyung sitting live and well was hanging out with an old friend of hers at some dim bar where old fashioned red and squeaky corner chairs lined the walls, and round hanging lamps reached low above the bar tables.

It was awfully empty tonight, seemingly that had something to do with the snowstorm that was taking over the city the same day. Her only company was the silent jazz music humming in the background, and this guy who just wouldn’t shut his mouth for five minutes at a time. Kyulkyung gave him a smile, trying to endure his endless cackling over the same never funny jokes he kept repeating to every woman he met.

Minhyun sat his elbows down on the table, neatly resting chin on top of his intertwined fingers, “Tell me Kyulkyung, how come you aren’t even slightly nervous about this?”

He and Kyulkyung weren’t exactly like typical friends, the two merely just tolerated one another. They would have fun hanging out together or meet up in times of need to speak their heart out when nobody else listened. But at the end of the day, Kyulkyung knew that the guy didn’t really give a real shit about her, and she couldn’t give one about him either. The only good of them remaining as friends was for the noisy company and gossip.

Minhyun was the only other person other Nayoung who knew about her whole blackmailing plan, as well as everything there was to know about this mysterious ex boyfriend of hers – Dongho.

She chuckled at his given question, “Nervous? Why should I be? I am not afraid of that person one bit.”

Minhyun grinned at her, he found her personality to be extremely interesting. The woman was cunning and fearful, now practically living the life of an outlaw. Even right then, Kyulkyung was still so boastful about it too by proudly wearing luxury accessories she shouldn’t be able to afford in her lifetime, flaunting her crooked wealth.

“I am going to get out of this anyways, I’ve already got the tickets to Bahamas in my pocket.” She winked, rising her glass for a toast.

Minhyun could tell that it obviously wasn’t her real destination, the sly woman was merely joking and would never put herself in danger by sharing too much with Hwang.

He gladly toasted with her, but the uncertainty of the woman’s plans still made him consider the what-ifs. Kyulkyung was surely brave, but brave did not equal reasonable.

“But what if the old man just gets sick of what you’ve been doing?” He spoke with curiosity, “Cuts you off before you ever get the chance to get away from this?”

“Then, you get to keep the house you signed for all I care.” Kyulkyung snort, not really finding the morbid thought of her being killed off too scary, there was nothing she that made her afraid when she was so confident about succeeding in her plans.

“I am serious here.” Minhyun tapped the edge of the glass in his palm with his finger. It made a small, hollow dink noise.

She shrugged, “Obviously, what he wants is to destroy the evidence, but I won’t let him do that.”

“If I go down, so will he. And I will make sure his dirty little secrets are all out by then.” She promised.

She watched as Minhyun took another sip of his drink acting just as calm as ever, “In the worst case scenario, I’ll just hide the evidence of his crime somewhere or give it to someone who won’t just end up selling it back to him.” Kyulkyung finished her speech that sounded all too boring to herself.

The tall man set his drink on the table first, “Kang Dongho?” She nodded once, and he instantly spoke again, “So you are entrusting the evidence to the brother of the guys wife?” He suspiciously squint his eyes into just thin lines.

This time she nodded twice, but her eyes began to pace around back and forth from side to side, “I can’t hand them to Kang directly though, its think it would be too risky. So I’ll just have to give a flash drive to his close friend who will pass it to him.”

Minhyun was sharp, he knew ins and outs of the whole plan, and in a way he was able to predict exactly what she was thinking, “Hm? Do you mean that other guy, Kim Jonghyun?”

He tilted his head like a cat, “But don’t those two despise each other now?”

Kyulkyung remained tight lipped about the relationship in between the two men around Minhyun, he didn’t need to know everything after all. 

“Jonghyun will still give it to him, I know he will.” She bought her own glass to her lips for a larger gulp, until the glass sat empty under her chin.

 

Jonghyun woke up as soon as the rays of sun had walked around the curtain set up in front of his bed, the bright light made his eyes sting. 

First thing in the morning he did was cough like he always did before getting up, and then he would sit up to be able to know what time it was. But this time, he couldn’t get to the second step, as something heavy was holding him down in bed against his own will.

He felt chills when something wet would then press up against the nape of his neck the next second, and two strong arms squeeze him from behind. “Dongho?” Jonghyun jumped awake.

“Shit.” Dongho stared at him wide-eyed now awake as well, after he had believed that this was all part of a pleasant dream.

“Someone should have woken me up—” He rushed to sit up in Jonghyuns bed horrified to find himself still in the hospital room by the next morning after he had accidentally dozed off.

Dongho had even ended up taking his shirt off somewhere through the night from the heat of having to sleep next to Jonghyun, who’s body always burned hot like a stove next to his. The larger man anxiously scanned the room with all the other occasionally coughing patients present, yet none of them seemed to really give a damn about him being here.

Despite it, there weren’t enough words to describe how embarrassed Dongho was to find himself like this in front of strangers. “Where’s my damn shirt?” He hissed, cheeks burning red.

“Oh? You are off already?” Jonghyun looked at him with the saddest puppy eyes ever, his hair already swept and tucked behind his own ear as if he was trying to impress, which was actually working.

“I can’t stay here, not like this.” Dongho spoke low and quick while combing back his fluffy hair that wouldn’t stay down anymore.

“I’ll come to pick you up later.” He shot his eyes over to the people that weren’t even looking scared of their non existent stares, he then popped his head through the hole of his shirt and took off.

Jonghyun wanted to ask where the guy was even off to be in such a rush, but Dongho didn’t respond before leaving. In that erratic moment, the guy had decided to buy some of those bulbs that their future bedroom was still missing, this was seemingly the best time for it.

 

Only after Dongho was long gone, Jonghyun had become mischievous on his own accord again. The guy wasn’t just going to stay in his hospital room like an actual patient all day long, of course not, that would be absolutely dreadful. 

He patiently waited just until he was sure that there would be no nurse coming to check up on him, and then he snuck out of the room easy as pie. He felt well enough to be walking around on his own without guidance, for the most part that was the reason why he felt like he didn’t even need to be here at all.

Jonghyun took an elevator down to another floor, one that had much younger patients, teens and smaller kids. That same floor had a cool toy claw machine and it was Jonghyuns past time to reel out colored teddy bears, just like his own, and give them away to the sick little patients.

While occupied said claw machine, he was pretty much surrounded by the smaller people around him, his little fans. The kids were all pointing and cheering once his controlled claw take a plush toy by its ear, only to have it slip it right out of the machines grip the last second, causing for whines to erupt all around him.

Jonghyun searched his hospital garb pocket for any remaining coins to feed to the greedy machine even more, yet he jolted his hands out of his pockets once a whole stack of such coins was out of a sudden slapped down right in front of him, on the dashboard of the machines control panel by a stranger.

He looked up to see an unfamiliar smiling face, a tall man with nicely groomed and fox shaped eyes introduced himself, “Hello Kim Jonghyun, my name is Hwang Minhyun.”

The shortest of the two tried to remember where he had heard that specific name not too long time ago, he looked down at the mans shoes, they were nice and neat, sparkling like they’ve been recently polished.

“You might of heard about me from your friend, I spoken to Dongho before.” Minhyun stated, and although Jonghyun was cautious of a stranger at first, he immediately trusted him knowing that Dongho had met him.

“You must be the guy he met at Kyulkyungs funeral, is that right?” Jonghyun asked and Minhyun raised his chin up high for a nod.

“Actually, I came to talk about her with you, can we go talk somewhere quiet?” Minhyuns request made Jonghyun turn back to look at his little minions who were still eagerly anticipating their prizes from the claw machine.

“Not in front of the kids.” Minhyun had to say it again, because the subject of conversation was indeed quite grim.

Jonghyun left the hallway and entrusted the spare change to the eldest children, while he and Hwang headed to the upper floors, back to Jonghyuns assigned room.

Only for a brief moment it was all empty during this hour of the day, so what ever private things this man had to discuss, he had to do it quickly. However despite that, the tall stranger didn’t seem to look like he was in a rush. 

The odd stranger remained silent for a long moment slowly walking around the room in a half circle. “I actually tried to get in contact with you before by calling you on the phone, but you never picked up.” Minhyun spoke with his back turned. 

“Oh, really?” Jonghyun tried to remember by clumsily scratching his head, perhaps those strange calls he kept getting could be explained then, “My bad.”

The other didn’t follow up and instead began to slowly pace around the room without saying anything. Jonghyun was starting to grow impatient seeing Minhyun explore the patients room and not speaking to him like he had requested.

The tall boy raised his hand to a bed curtain gently swaying it away to the side to reveal another empty bed behind it. Only then Minhyun started speaking again, 

He spoke while still turned away from Jonghyun, “Dongho did mention that you two are a couple?”

Right then, Jonghyuns heart had almost jumped to his throat. Dongho had never directly used those words to describe himself and Jonghyun before, “He did?”

With a pleased smirk Minhyun began turning to the other, making a nod. He was delighted to see the boys reaction after successfully feeding him the exact right words that the guy had wanted to hear. Jonghyun had now entirely let his guard down.

“For how long have you and him been together?” Minhyun showed a reassuring smile to the shorter male, “I’m guessing this whole mess bought the two of you together?”

Jonghyun started to feel a bit uncomfortable, the way Minhyun was asking him all of these questions didn’t quite rub him the right way. “Why do you ask that?” Jonghyin couldn’t hide his nervous voice.

Minhyun ignored his question, instead he out of nowhere cracked this loud, obnoxious chuckle and for some reason it made the hair on the back of Jonghyuns hair stand.

The tall male mocked him, “But ain’t that kinda messed up?” Jonghyun suddenly snapped his eyes up at Minhyun in confusion, “Huh?”

“You knew he was still grieving over the death of his ex and at the most vulnerable time of his life, you went and started dating him yourself?” Minhyun laughed into the terrified face of Jonghyun.

That was wrong. It was not how Minhyun had described it, Jonghyun would never do that to Dongho, he only loved him. But when the shortest male tried to speak up, he couldn’t. Jonghyun was at loss of words, only breaths ever left his mouth.

Minhyun quickly got bored of looking at Jonghyun trying stutter, the tall man had only come here to ask him for one thing, “Where is it?” He demanded.

“W-what is?” Jonghyun almost stumbled his step, trying to back up from the man he now found scary. Minhyun winced his eyes shut to hiss in a voice not at all matching his kind face, “Don’t lie to me, you know where it is.”

He stepped closer to Jonghyun to regain the space lost, “You’ve been lying to Dongho this whole time haven’t you?” Another step bought them closer, “So you could get money out of it all for yourself, right?”

This made absolutely no sense, what was this guy even talking about. Jonghyun wasn’t a liar, he would never betray his friend like that again.

Jonghyun couldn’t look at him in the eye anymore, instead he glanced straight down on the floor. Then he saw the tip of Minhyuns polished shoe reach to stand directly in front of him and then his eyeballs were starting to literally shake in their sockets.

“Let me know where it is and then maybe I won’t tell him.” Minhyun spoke in a teasing voice, slowly leaning in to Jonghyuns ear. This was blackmail. 

When the man was so close, Jonghyun found it harder to breathe. The way he spoke was exactly just like Kyulkyung, almost as if he had known her exact words.

“Come on, just let me lift it off your shoulders.” He told. Minhyuns voice had already became a low whisper, his mouth merely an inch away from Jonghyuns earlobe.

The other man had to yelp as soon as Minhyun spoke again, “I can perhaps even give you a small cut if you want?”

Jonghyun launched his head back to suddenly gasp for air, “I— I can’t—” Jonghyun struggled to even speak right then only making Minhyun more impatient and angry.

“You can’t do – what?” He asked in agitation, but Jonghyun just kept shaking his head. Instead of taking yet another step back where his bed was the man suddenly collapsed straight to the floor.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Minhyun stepped his one foot back to see what was happening to him. Jonghyun was out of a sudden grasping and clawing at his own throat with his fingernails sharp.

“Breathe—I can’t breathe.” Jonghyun choked out what he could, but every syllable felt like searing pain sourcing from the deep of his chest in an apparent panic attack.

Freaked out Minhyun rushed to kneel down to him patting the back of the man the best he could to help him, because he didn’t want the guy to possibly die because of him.

“Hey, hang on. I’ll get help.” The tallest tried to hold Jonghyun in place from falling further flat on the floor, but the other boys shoulders were pushing back against the strength of his own trying to squirm from Minhyuns unsafe grip.

Minhyuns voice yelled into the hallway for a nurse and once they came, he just stood there and continuously watched the scary scene frozen like stone.

Jonghyun couldn’t shut his eyes, in his whole life they had never been so wide, bloodshot and filled with fear. He had to warn Dongho not to trust Hwang, he couldn’t let himself pass out. The boy shook in place face bathed in tears before the next moment he had fallen limp in the nurses arms.

 

That night Dongho got the most dreadful phone call imaginable, something had happened to Jonghyun so he had been moved to intensive care over night. Although It was just a scare, Jonghyun was breathing fine again, only put under strong medication for the night. There would be more check-ups, more doctor visits to come, and for this mean that he would have to be stuck in the hospital for longer.

Although there was no way Dongho could remain still after this. Yet his health problems were reoccurring, he knew this could happen again. A small jog up the stairs, him squatting to reach the lowest shelf too suddenly – anything could trigger for his health to worsen later on.

Dongho couldn’t imagine what he would do with himself if Jonghyun suddenly ended up dying one day. If one day he just woke up and Jonghyun was already gone while away at some hospital.

Behind a sealed hospital room door, he watched the boy through a small window after being told not to enter at this time. He became static watching as Jonghyun squirmed in his bed for a bit while totally medicated and dizzy desperately trying to tell nurse some mumbled word nonsense until he was again out of it.

The short male sat outside the room door and sighed in relief nothing too bad had happened. He started to blame himself again, none of this would have happened if back then if Dongho wasn’t so mad at him to let him get hurt and not help him.

Dongho looked at himself back then as a different man, or rather some kind of a monster who had done so much harm to someone so innocent and dear. Perhaps he really deserved to die for it, he debated.

The sad male couldn’t stay in the hospital overnight even if he wanted to, he ended up going to his car in the parking lot and sleeping there, but not before calling his older sister and asking her for some money. At this point it had become a ritual for him, always needing money to pay the bills, and of course Jonghyun didn’t know about it.

Inside of his shabby, cold car, he wondered about what had gotten Kyulkyung so rich in such a short amount of time and how maybe he should try it too. Kyulkyung could have scammed some rich person just like Jonghyun had said, ended up messing with the wrong guy and after being found out she had paid the price in blood, he theorized.

He stopped himself and promised himself he would stop thinking about her, as well as stop looking for what had happened to her for now. Because with Jonghyun like this, it was just not worth his time to be worried about her anymore.

Dongho was suddenly interrupted from thinking when his eyes flicked to something strange happening outside his car. He noticed something off about the other cars parked in the same underground garage. 

A black van stood not far from his own, its sides splashed with mud as if it had gone off-road, a detail that would come in mind later. Dongho had driven off and returned to the hospital earlier, only to notice the very same van again, but now parked in a different spot, always two or three rows away from his own.

Behind the dark tinted glass windows, he could see rare, unclear movement, meaning that a person was possibly inside sitting at the wheel this whole time.

He could be just paranoid, but as a small test he left his car to go outside the hospital and catch a smoke. And just as he had predicted there was someone coming after him from the parking lot, actively following him from a great distance.

The stranger was a tall, middle aged man who wore mostly black and grey, however Dongho couldn’t see his face due to a fabric facemask. His vision was sharp though and he could read the strangers eyes, which looked angry like wolfs. This guy wasn’t the same one Dongho had caught stalking him before, this was someone different. He assumed that they were a cop too.

Kang decided to not approach the stranger, since even if he would try to move close the man would simply walk off into a different direction.

If these were cops, then they probably couldn’t do anything silly to Dongho without a warrant for an arrest all aside from just watching him from afar and waiting for a reason to go after him perhaps. Dongho told himself to act like he didn’t know about being followed for now.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello this is chapter 2ne1 and it is already slowly inching towards the end thank you all for coming out

The young cop bit into the nail of his thumb chewing it in between his front teeth. He anxiously stomped from one end of his friends living room to the other, deep in thought.

Mingi laid his head all the way back on the couch, eyes pressed shut in attempt to ignore Aarons non stop foot stepping that never came to an end. “Argh, you are giving me a headache!” Mingi whined when even that did not work.

Kwak immediately stopped his feet, and instead rushed to sit next to his friend on the couch in worry, “Oh no, does it hurt a lot?”

“Dummy.” Mingi pretended to smack him on the top of his head, but he only ruffled the top of the mans hair with his violent raised hand. It didn’t hurt, Mingi was only saying it to get the guy to shush, but he took it literally.

“I am sorry. I just don’t get what’s going on.” Aaron fired up again, “I cannot get it out of my head.”

The two had indeed been trying to piece the weird connection in between Mingis friend and a potential murder suspect together for the whole day so far to no luck.

Mingi was stressed out not knowing where Nayoung really had been this whole time, and even more so now when he had realized that all ways of contacting that woman had been cut off. He hadn’t had the chance to reach out to her in over a year, and he had already tried many times before.

Meanwhile, according to Aarons own research, that house they had snuck in was not actually owned by Nayoung, in fact it had been signed directly under the Hwang Minhyuns name, the same man who had lead the suspect in it. 

There had to be some kind of a link in between the two parties, both Aaron and Mingi were now tempted to find out more.

“If Nayoung had a rich friend taking care of her, then that kind of explains her suddenly moving abroad for treatment and all. In the beginning right after the building collapse accident neither of us even had insurance to help us.” Mingi pondered.

The building collapse, just remembering about that accident made Aarons skin spawn goosebumps. Nayoung and Mingi were the only ones amongst their other friends that had survived under the rubble after a newly built local mall had collapsed on itself.

At the time of the accident Aaron was studying in a prestigious united states school and was a diligent student, his grades were excellent all across the board. But after hearing about what had happened to his friend in Korea, the guy had just dropped everything and rushed back to be with Mingi. In the end he had barely even managed to graduate from a police academy, due to him failing in almost every class. 

Aaron raised his chin to Mingis further explanation, “Nayoung trusted me to tell me she came from foster care, she didn’t have a family to cover for her and all of her existing savings had gone towards education.

He quickly moved on to his next big point, “So her suddenly living in a luxury villa in the hills equipped with home health care services? I wish that were me.” The tallest flaunted, making Aaron pop out his lip.

“That reminds me!” He spoke up louder, “She even sent me a large sum of money some time later that helped to cover a major portion of the housing costs for us too, remember?” Mingi saw Aaron shake his head, he had lost count of the amount of people who he had to thank for helping them pay off their debts.

“I tried to contact her right afterwards to thank her, but it was as if she had fallen off the edge of the earth.” He noted, turning his jaw in an angle of confusion.

The two were quickly out of ideas, but Mingi just as quickly came up with new ones, “I want to speak with that man who owns the house.” He suddenly announced, believing that he should know something, “Maybe he will tell us where Nayoung is?”

“Hell no.” Aaron suddenly grabbed the both of his hands, “He can potentially be involved in an ongoing investigation or even become another future suspect.”

Mingi had to sigh, “Dude, chill out. Not everyone who you see interact with a suspect is automatically their partner in crime.”

Aaron shook his head, “I still have to report this to my higher ups, so they are going to take care of it and you shouldn’t get involved in it yourself.” He ratted himself out to still be in contact with those weird cops, making Mingi boil with rage.

“You are doing what Kwak Aaron? Dude, you promised that you wouldn’t be their puppet anymore.” Mingi almost shout.

The young cop started speaking coldly back to him, “They need constant updates otherwise I would be useless to them, especially now since they have probably already realized that I really don’t have any dirt on Kim Jonghyun like I said I did at all. Don’t even know him anymore.”

He enforced to the other, “You know we need the money to get the fuck out of here, even if this is corrupt.” Aaron admitted he cared about his friend more than his service to the state.

“Where did your honest cop act go?” Mingi was ashamed of what his friend had become, a bribed cop doing someone else’s dirty work for money.

Indeed Aaron had acknowledged that he was no longer real police working to protect the law, but some crook. He wished he could be sorry, but right now he was confident that this was the right choice, because it let him be next to his best friend. It gave the two a chance to finally fulfil their dream together. Aaron wasn’t going to back down from it.

When the short guy came to hug him, Mingi did not at all wish to hug him back. He wanted to be angry and mean right now, but his heart still always softened up when it came down to this moron anyways. Mingi let him finish the hug.

“Please, forgive me.” Aaron begged in his sad, puppyish voice, face hidden into the shoulder of the other. His tall friend finally hugged him back, but only after a long displeased groan.

 

Dongho snorted awake from another nap he had taken inside of his car, acting confused and dazed for a few moments before remembering why he had slept in that musky car. It was because he didn’t want to go far from Jonghyun.

It was a cold morning that day, Kang put his hood up and headed out from his car to smoke again, something he had promised himself not to do anymore. A warm flame lit inside of his palm, and he was quick to breeze steam from his lips.

His seemingly dull day was made shitty once more when he recognized the same strange van again just sitting there in the far distance watching him from afar. Some bastard was in there just monitoring Dongho the whole night, even though the guy had not moved an inch, it was ridiculous.

Dongho dropped the burnt down cig and stomped it out with his foot while staring directly at the front window where his stalker watched, not caring anymore.

Without looking back Dongho got into his car and drove off already expecting for the van to probably come following him as well. He made it to a fast-food place unbothered and then later continued his drive to his apartment he had not been at for a long time.

He now remembered how in the end he had still never even gotten those damn bulbs, for some reason that had been hung up in his mind that for a while.

Dongho turned off the engine and finished his already cooled meal in the car trying to eat as fast as he could, just so he could go up to shower and then rush right back to the hospital to be with his best friend.

While he was in middle of munching through his sandwich like an absolute savage just to finish up quickly, he happened to glance up to see the car that had followed him here. 

His then eyebrows drooped back down low into an angry, confused line. A black car was parked near his, not a van, this time it was a different car. The same type – dark tinted windows, an unseen driver sitting in the front secretly watching. 

All of this was starting to feel odd, more eyes on him made him sense that whoever these guys were, they were maybe preparing to strike sometime soon. But what would they want of Dongho.

Dongho exited his own car whilst pretending that he had not seen the stranger and he speed walked towards the building exit. Just as he had expected, he heard the other car behind him lock open its doors.

The silent watcher then continuously followed Dongho outside, but for once the short man had been clever hiding behind the doorframe of the same door he had just gone through to fool his stalker. Right as the man passed him, Dongho scanned him wearing a black hoodie and a facemask just like the other one.

After the coast was clear, Dongho quickly headed back inside the building away from his hiding spot and took the elevator straight to his apartment feeling that something might have happened to it while he was gone since there were more of those weird guys around here. 

By now it was clear that they wanted something from him, and whatever it was Dongho refused to let the cops he didn’t trust have it.

He stomped over to his apartment door with the intention to check and make sure everything was in one place, so it was no surprise to him when the door to his own home was already swung wide open to the hallway.

The apartment was a mess, every bag and unpacked piece of luggage had been ripped open and turned over, everything was thrown around like a tornado had gone through.

He moved over to the desk where he remembered to have left the important laptop, and it was now missing along with the video evidence of Nayoungs sighting that was in it, it was all gone, even his phone was gone from the socket in the wall too. He hadn’t backed it up anywhere else, and even if he did, his laptop held all of his signed in passwords for the cops to dig through.

But that wasn’t the end of it, faintly in the background he could hear rummaging and searching still going on.

Dongho held his breath going around the corner to sneak up on the intruder. He first noticed him from the back squatting, long beige outerwear coat spread on the floor behind him like a cape. The stranger did not look like he was one of the other stalking bastards, in fact Dongho could recognize him.

“What the fuck do you think you are you doing?” Dongho yelled at Minhyun who was in middle of trying to look under a mess pile. The body flinched and stood up.

“This—this wasn’t me Kang, I didn’t do any of this.” Minhyun put his hands ahead of him trying to calm the angry male already balling up his own fists.

“Are you kidding me? What the hell dude!” Dongho kept staring at Minhyuns each movement in case the bastard was about to run out.

“It was already like this before I came.” He swore to the very unwilling Dongho who refused to listen. “Then why else would you be here?” The shortest demanded.

Minhyun slowly retreated one of his hands to the inner side of his coat, Dongho was slow to realize that the bastard might be reaching for a weapon.

“Is Jonghyun okay?” Minhyuns voice of regret sounded low, and Dongho had suddenly lost his guard hearing the name of his best friend being bought in this conversation.

“You bastard. I swear if you had anything to do with what happened to him, you will pay!” Dongho growled like a caged animal.

The exact next moments later he was facing a gun in Hwangs trembling pale hand. “I didn’t know he would react like that!” He swore on his guilty heart.

Dongho had never seen a real gun ever being pointed at him before, where did this jerk even manage to get that thing anyways. The shortest mans face was angled at the other man, but eyes were locked looking low on the gun. Slowly he began to raise his hands.

The tallest became alert again, and began to voice his initial demand very carefully, his pale lips had began trembling from the anxiety of holding a real gun, “I knew you would not comply easily Kang, so I came prepared.”

He continued the threat after a pause, swallowing foam stuck in his throat, “Don’t mess with me Dongho, I need to know if you really don’t have it?”

Dongho didn’t act half as worried as him, he just kept his hands up, “Have what?”

Minhyun hissed, an angry red colour slowly creeping up in his earlobes, “The flash drive, damnit!”

It didn’t even click at all for Dongho, he was more angry than confused at such a question, “Why would I have something like that, what are you even talking about!”

Minhyun suddenly became less tense, even smiling at the other as if he still had another backup plan up his own sleeve, “You are right. Kim Jonghyun should have it, should I go ask him again myself?” He used the same old, gross tactics to get what he wanted.

“Pull his name out of your mouth you lying bastard!” Dongho raged, falling one step closer to the other who tried not to act too alarmed by the sudden movement.

Minhyuns hands were sweating and trembling around the gun so hard that he feared pressing down on the trigger by accident, he aimed lower just in case at Donghos chest instead of it being his face.

“You are just so gullible Dongho.” Minhyun continued to hiss out more threats, although he was struggling not to pant.

“But I’m clearly starting to lose my patience over here.” Minhyuns words remained just as cocky. Yet Dongho was never scared of his worthless threats.

Another step from Dongho made him take one nervous step back. “You won’t shoot me anyway, we both know that it would be a really stupid idea.” Dongho mocked him.

It looked like if Dongho was about to disarm him, then he could run for the gun himself instead, the guy was totally unpredictable and might even end up shooting him too. Minhyun feared.

Yet he tried to remain in his stance, aiming at Donghos head again to scare him off, but the guy still saw no hesitation, proudly arriving his forehead an inch away from the barrel of the gun.

“Give me the evidence and I won’t – kill you.” Minhyun swore, his voice becoming a grunt that was not at all matching his kind and handsome face. Indeed, the guy was an actor by profession after all, and now this was the real him without the act – weak and cowardly.

The next thing Dongho had said made Minhyun shoot his eyes open wide. “I know you are just bluffing.”

While Minhyun was taken back by it, Dongho actually tried to grab at the gun to disarm the man, but predicting it Minhyun had gripped onto that thing strong. 

The two men were struggling and leaning the weapon downwards out of the way not to accidentally shoot someone while trying to grab it. Like that Minhyun and Dongho tussled for long, and soon enough without noticing it the tallest had already pressed down the trigger.

The gunshot was followed by a shrill yell, Minhyuns gasping voice. Dongho was too dazed to understand what had happened at first, it was almost like fireworks had gone off before his eyes leaving him in a shocked state of confusion. The gunshot had actually been so loud it had disorientated him for a full second.

The next thing he knew was Minhyun clutching onto him, yelling every profanity known to man out loud at the other. The tallest had been shot. Dongho slowly sat him down on one of the sturdy boxes helping him take a breath.

The gun was long forgotten on the floor, instead Minhyun now only worried about shooting himself in the leg. Dongho reviewed the gunshot, it had gone straight into his thigh where the gun had been pointed at.

The yells had now ceased, now it was just Minhyun gasping and looking down at his badly injured limb in anger. But the anger was not directed at Dongho, he blamed himself.

“Oh hell.” Minhyun cursed, wincing his eyes shut in pain and sting. Someone must of heard the gunshot by now, or at least heard Minhyun yelling his lungs out.

After a while, the tall man was a lot calmer now, the shock of the pain made him stopped caring about all else. Dongho bit his lip looking at the mans pants seep with red, he rushed to find something on the floor like a stray shirt and pressed it over the wound.

“This is bad.” Dongho hissed. His worry made Minhyun spit out a quick sarcastic laugh, “Oh, it couldn’t get any worse for me.”

Minhyun watched as Dongho was trying to tie an arm of a shirt under and around the leg in a miserable attempt to limit the blood circulation as quickly as possible.

At least now that both of them had calmed down from the high of the fight, but it surely wasn’t for long, its only a matter of time until Hwangs adrenaline levels preventing him from feeling the full pain drop, and he starts yelling for his life again.

Dongho asked him an innocent sounding question, “You said that you weren’t the one who had done this to my apartment?” He took a second to look around his own apartment smashed to pieces and wonder how it cane to be this way.

Minhyun suddenly snapped at the other, this caused his leg to immediately sting more, “Of course it wasn’t me! Do you really think I could do all this by myself?”

Because of the searing pain that stopped him, Minhyun was forced to speak in a low quiet voice, otherwise his leg would tense up and hurt even more. 

“They went through your stuff looking for the same thing I did, but they clearly couldn’t find it.” He spoke, reviewing every shelf and box in the room that had been flipped over.

He looked over to give Dongho a serious expression, looking at him with drooping eyelids that had been turned to red, “That is why they are still following you, right?”

Dongho sharpened his ears, “Who is?” Minhyun gradually started to raise his voice again after Dongho had managed to irk him.

“Just worry about your family and stay out of it—!” He stopped to gasp, “Ouch!”

Dongho was patient, he waited for the man to take a few more deep breaths and then speak. In the end that shirt managed to hold up well, but he still applied another random piece of cloth as the blood from the wound was all the way through Minhyuns clothes by now.

The tallest swallowed spit building up in his throat before speaking again, “You are in deep shit now though, they will be going after you to see where you’ve hid their evidence, and if they don’t find it then—”

Donghos eyes lit up to Minhyuns next set of very concerning sounding words, “They will probably come after you?”

Even if that sounded awful, the shortest didn’t want to focus on it, right now he was already looking for Minhyuns cell phone to save him. He began dialling the number for an ambulance.

“Kim Jonghyun—” Minhyun spoke in a weak, spaced out voice that didn’t even sound like his own anymore.

“Jonghyun?” Dongho spoke back to him while the phone rang by his ear waiting to connect him to a dispatcher.

Minhyun couldn’t even finish, his eyelids had drooped lower and lower over his eyes, and he was actively becoming more lightheaded overtime. He feared that he would black out. Yet Donghos high-pitched voice then woke him up a little.

“Hello, I have a guy suffering from a self inflicted gunshot wound right here.” Dongho yelled at the dispatcher receiving the call.

“Self inflected? You little—” Minhyun cut himself off, hissing at yet another dagger like stab at his leg as his muscles throbbed in agony. Then he fell limp again.

Meanwhile Dongho had already announced his address to the ambulance and instead pushed the phone into Hwangs ear for him to take over for himself. The tall man looked up in confusion as Dongho suddenly undressed him from his beige coat, putting it on himself instead.

“Hang in there.” That was Kangs best advice to the other man as he ran from the apartment with a quick new disguise.

Minhyun couldn’t yell to stop him while he was still on the phone with a lady trying to keep him awake. But at least he was relieved that Dongho had the right idea. What Minhyun was trying to tell him was that his friend was now probably in danger next.

Just as Minhyun had predicted, Dongho was going straight back to the hospital to check up on his friend. 

The man did not feel like it was safe for him anymore, nor Jonghyun, as long as they were both tied up in this weird mess. The two men did not have whatever these guys want from them, and Dongho did not care to go back and ask.

One thing was for sure though, all of this was because of Kyulkyung. He was absolutely positive that woman was responsible for all of this, otherwise her friend would have not come wielding a gun at Dongho out when he clearly looked like he had never even fired a shot before.

Dongho managed to sneak out the building again, running out on the street to catch a stray cab on the street and go to his friend before the cops could figure out he was onto them. He was finally starting to understand why Kyulkyung had become so paranoid right before going missing.


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some big tw stuff this chapter!! make sure to review the tags to make sure ure comfortable with that!

Jonghyun was still asleep where he bad been left, his body exhausted and plugged to a continuous IV drip. He was not meant to be removed from his patient bed yet, especially not in this state. 

Dongho barely waited before sneaking in and without even trying to wake him up first, he stole the limp body of his best friend out of the bed, and quickly undid the IV himself. 

This sounded crazy, and it surely was, but Dongho was too paranoid to leave Jonghyun here when they were actively being hunted. For that reason needed to bring the man somewhere safe and far.

When detecting movement happening around him, Jonghyun gasped awake, shooting his head up to say something to his friend as soon as he saw him, “Dongho!”

“I met Hwang – don’t – don’t – trust him!” He panted like he was out of breath, the poor guy probably had no idea how much time had already passed since he had collapsed.

“It’s okay, I know already.” Dongho spoke with guilt for allowing that prick ever come near him, but at least now he won’t be coming after them anymore the way he was after Dongho had left him.

Jonghyun was had become so awfully thin and frail, it broke Donghos heart to carry him as a lightweight. The shortest sat him down on the edge of his bed to first make sure he could even sit, then went to look through the shelves for his clothes to put on. 

The dazed patient blinked at Dongho until he finally came into full focus, and when he finally did the tallest instantly spotted something strange.

“Dongho, is that blood?” He looked at the mans new coat that looked way too long for him. The hem was dried with deep red. The other man politely ignored him for now, as it would not be wise to startle him again.

“Just put this on.” Dongho handed the other man his pair of jeans to replace the hospital garb he had been wearing until now. 

Jonghyun was still a bit out of it, he spoke like it too, “Am I allowed to leave already?” His voice sounded so weak it made Dongho feel even worse for doing this knowing that his friend should clearly be resting right now.

He thinned his lips, avoiding having to look his friend in the eye and lie, “Yeah, hurry up though.” 

He patiently waited as the other man even struggled to slide jeans up past his knees, and opted to just help him with the rest. Then Dongho began mounting backpacks containing clothes and other useful stuff for travel on their backs before leaving.

After he stood Jonghyun had managed to get a lot more less dizzy and by holding onto Donghos arm he was even able to run, a stronger elbow hooked around his own arm. 

The two were bolting down the long hospital hallway and Jonghyun didn’t know what for, he didn’t even try to ask fully trusting Dongho to know what to do instead.

But then all of a sudden, the arm of Dongho rapidly yanked back because Jonghyun had abruptly stopped his run. The boy was bug eyed, suddenly remembering something.

Dongho yelled after him as his friend almost tripped, but still insisted on running back the long hallway the same way they had just came, “Where are you going?”

The shortest caught up, finding Jonghyun back in the room of his bed. Turns out he had just forgotten his comfort bear, that dumb thing. In a state of delirium Jonghyun struggled to stuff it inside of his backpack, grunting and using his whole body weight just to squeeze more into a bag that could only fit so much. Dongho sighed in annoyance, coming in to help him do it faster.

Once outside, the two made it to the same cab that had been waiting for them to return. The driver waited for the address to take the two men to, yet Dongho hesitated to speak. 

They were by now absolutely was out of options, Dongho believed that they had nowhere else to go or a place to flee from the cops. Maybe they could maybe hide for a bit or move around by staying at different motels, the cheapest ones they could afford to.

As for Jonghyun, until now he had been left completely clueless, looking at his friends face to for something that could tell him why were they running. So the minute Dongho had told the driver to go to a random downtown area instead of their home, Jonghyun knew something was way off. 

“I thought we would go home?” Jonghyun spoke to the other by now he was fully reenergized. Dongho had to shake his head and admit his lie, “We can’t now, not anymore.”

“Why?” Jonghyun wanted to raise his voice, but he noticed Donghos quick glance pointing at the cab driver. It had to be something serious that Dongho could not discuss publicly, Jonghyun concluded his suspicion. The tallest felt as if he could die from the anxiety of not being told.

The shortest instead took Jonghyuns hand and hugged it into his own lap. Donghos finger would glide back and forth over his ring to calm him, but Jonghyun could now not stop thinking about the blood he had seen on the edge of Kangs coat. The guy had left it at the hospital realizing it was dirty too.

Yet despite the dried blood on his clothing, Dongho didn’t look like he was hurt anywhere. Then did he hurt someone else, Jonghyun was puzzled and frightened to bone looking away from his friend.

Not even minutes after the had gone out into the road, something had to go wrong again when the driver jolted to look into his rear and side view mirrors. A cop car behind them was signaling him to pull over. They were after him, Kang knew it.

The shortest hissed, punching his hand down on the passenger seat in front of him wanting to tell the cab driver to hit the pedal instead, but he couldn’t.

Jonghyun nervously shot his eyes back and forth, trying to piece it all together himself. “Dongho, are the cops—after you?” He whispered, making Donghos face to drop pale.

“Did you do something?” Jonghyuns eyeballs scrolled down to his friends hands to notice that they had been badly wiped of traces of blood. The driver also overheard the question and without a word began to slow the engine.

This was so fucked up, Dongho was obviously innocent, he had literally done nothing to deserve having cops be sent after him. However now he knew he could not run any further, because once that cab stopped, it was over for him.

Despite the blood evidence, Jonghyun grabbed into the other mans hands. He had no idea what his friend had done, and in a way he did not even care. If the cops put Dongho away, Jonghyun didn’t think he could live even a day without him.

The cab had already stopped and two police men had stepped out to speak with the driver first, one was wearing a proper uniform standing in front of the other one just so Dongho could not see from where he was in the back.

The other man was seen not wearing a uniform, he was the one doing the talking by leaning low into the window to explain that there were two murder suspects sitting right in his backseat.

That remark was an instant dead giveaway that this cop wasn’t normal cop who was after him because he had shot Hwang Minhyun. These guys were absolutely after him because of his connection with Kyulkyung.

Dongho grew livid, red and boiling with intense rage upon hearing that Jonghyun was somehow now involved in this mess too, even though this made totally no sense. They were being framed.

“Sir, I need you and him to please step out of the vehicle.” The dressed up police man ordered, yet a tremor of cowardice was present in his tone. Dongho only had to glance at the mans eyes once to recognize him.

As soon as Dongho had stepped out, officer Kwak in his uniform turned the suspect around against the side of the car to cuff his arms behind. The other cop did the same, but more harshly, to Jonghyun.

The second cop was wearing all black and a facemask to cover the lower half of his mean face. His angry eyes glared back at Dongho, dark like charcoals, the boy recognized him as his stalker from before as well.

Meeting these two again at once was clearly no coincidence. If Dongho needed any more proof that this whole thing had been orchestrated, then this was his final proof he ever needed.

“You are a fucking traitor.” Kang hissed at the young cop, who jolted to his mean words. “Let us go already! We don’t even have whatever you are looking for, bastards!” He yelled some more.

Aaron was well aware that what he was doing was clearly not right and that he had no reason to arrest this man. But at this point he was too afraid to disobey the orders given out by the men wearing black who were clearly not even real cops themselves, still somehow were still tied to the police. The officer had suspected they might be part of a mob, so it was better if he just played nice and listened to all of their instructions.

The two alleged suspects were sat in the back of a police car, separated from the two front seats by impenetrable glass. Dongho kept throwing curses at Kwak and the other man demanding they better let him go or else.

Aaron truly felt so bad for doing this to someone from his childhood – Jonghyun. But at least the guy probably didn’t recognize him anymore, since he had been two years younger than the other and too young to remember when they had even gone to the same school together. Aaron was sorry, but couldn’t say it.

“Dongho, please for fuck sake what is going on?” Jonghyun gasped in sharp breaths trying to calm himself down in midst of all of this. At this point, he was starting to panic big time.

“They are after some kind of a information or data, Minhyun was after it too and he tried to trick us.” Dongho explained.

“Information? What information are they talking about?” Jonghyun looked around as if he was the odd one out until Dongho turned forwards at his captors to vouch for him.

“Exactly! I already told you assholes, we don’t have anything like it!” Dongho shout at the driver and his companion, but none seemed to listen to his angry pleas.

 

Mingi and Aaron had another fight, so by the next morning, without a word, the cop had decided to bolt out the door before Mingi was awake. Feeling apologetic and worried for him, the youngest decided to maybe do a surprise visit at his station and apologize to him there.

The guy wasn’t the most perfect cook, so he just bought some snacks Aaron really liked along the way and made his first ever trip to the local police station where his cop friend now worked.

He introduced himself at the reception as a close friend of someone working here, and with the neatly wrapped present of warm bakery goods in his hand he was easily let in for a short moment.

The boy stumbled his step in front of a wide bullpen of dozen of busy officers working at their desks. He assumed that Kwak must have his own desk somewhere and went to look, but that boy was nowhere to be seen.

Confused, Mingi walked up to one of Kwaks co-workers to ask if the guy had gone out. A helpful middle aged guy with huge thick glasses and a pen clipped in to his shirt acted confused upon his question.

“Rookie Kwak?” The man scratched his head trying to figure out whom the visitor was referring to, “We don’t have anyone new named Kwak working in our department, you might be mistaken.”

How could Mingi be mistaken, this was clearly the department listed in Aarons papers, or at least it was according to Aaron himself.

“He has to be. He just got a promotion and was moved here to Seoul!” Mingi was hoping, but his description only made the officer more certain. 

“We don’t have anyone like that here.” The guy shrugged his shoulders and slowly sat down to get back to his work.

Mingi chewed on his own lip for a minute before storming off leaving the warm bakery goods behind on the officers busy desk.

 

The two captives were lead to a city pier area, far from where they had originally been. Dongho would trip and stall his feet on purpose resisting the man in black pushing him towards a silent warehouse secluded away from the rest of the pier behind a high steel gate. 

The same black van and the other black car had gathered inside in its courtyard, more people arrived to close the steel gate shut after the police car had driven inside. Obviously, this was starting to look bad, real bad.

The men harshly dragged the two captives inside leading them through endless dark and into a new bright room with bare concrete floors and walls. Construction lights shined bright pointing to the middle of the room, where plastic sheet covers layered the whole floor and even walls high up to the ceiling. The two men both felt an eerie, uncomfortable feeling by being here.

As they entered, some other guy already present in the room was in the middle of putting on plastic gloves, and that’s right when Donghos brain finally fucking clicked for him to start kicking and trashing around for his dear life.

The man holding him kicked his knees from the back to force him to kneel. Likewise Jonghyun was thrown hard in the middle above the plastic sheets where all the lights had been aimed at. He stuck to the ground in fear, supporting himself on his elbows and choked for another breath after the fall.

Donghos horrified eyes immediately shined with wet once he heard the metal door that he had been bough in here through lock shut behind himself while two other men dressed in black stood in the room with just him and Jonghyun.

“What the hell do you want from us?” Dongho yelled at both the silent guy holding him on his knees and the other man, who was just done putting on his other glove. There was no response from neither.

“This is so fucked, you are so fucked.” Dongho cursed at the floor, unable to punch with his hands tied. 

Soon the tallest man wearing the gloves finally started to pay attention to Kangs curses, that’s also when a gun had appeared in his hand.

“Don’t make this any harder for yourself.” He gave the crying youth a cheerful word of advice, reading Donghos eyes of horror as it was something funny to him.

“This guy is your friend right?” The man spoke in a calm, deep voice while now throwing a nasty glare at said man. Dongho knew what the bastard was doing when he went straight to Jonghyun, the one thing dear to him. 

“Now, you are going to have to tell me where you hid that flash drive.” The man carefully explained, “Because I bet your buddy black lung over here probably doesn’t want even more problems than he already has.”

“I don’t have your fucking flash drive, I already told you!” Dongho yelled to which the wolf eyed man responded with a chuckle. 

“Kang, you are not in a position to not tell me the things that I want to know.” He warned.

His gloves made a stretching sound as he loaded his gun, this was only meant to scare him, Dongho told himself to not fall for it. Yet the tactic had worked. His whole body was shaking, mouth filling with spit he could not even swallow as a giant painful lump had formed inside the deep end of his throat.

He spoke again, nervous and stuttering to obey, “I really don’t know where it is. I don’t have the thing that you are looking for, so please let us go.”

The man bent in his knees to lower himself down to Dongho and laugh at his begging face. Scared to bone, Dongho winced his eyes open and closed as water gradually blurred his vision into just colors and shapes.

“The fact that you know about the existence of such a thing means that you’ve must have actually seen it, right?” The man spoke staring directly at the boy, but after a long moment of him not communicating he grew distracted and stood to walk back to Jonghyun.

Dongho tried to think, what flash drive could it be, and what was Minhyun trying to warn him about. Did perhaps Kyulkyung set them up for this when she said she would go to Jonghyun, was that the gift she meant to give to him, he theorized.

“Stop playing games Kang, you are going to end up dead anyway so might as well just say it now.” The man teased him, raising his arm to point a gun at Jonghyun. 

Donghos throat suddenly shut, he wasn’t able to speak, only grunts and growls came from his body as he tried to tell his friend to get away. Jonghyun was scared to see the gun, he leaned away on the floor in attempt to crawl somewhere, before the mans yell made him freeze on the spot.

He spoke, “Last warning Kang, where is it?” Dongho got his breath back to repeat himself, but the captor did not like the same answer, “I swear, I don’t know—”

Dongho didn’t even get to finish his thought before a gunshot had gone off right past his eyes. The room instantly filled with Jonghyuns painful screams and sobs while he looked back to see why did it suddenly hurt so much.

In rage, Jonghyuns friend tried to launch his shoulders out of the captors grip to go after the bastard with the gun. Dongho was yelling Jonghyuns name the loudest he had ever yelled. 

After failed attempts of breaking out, Kang quickly resorted to calling out to Jonghyun instead just look at him and keep calm, but the tallest could not hear him at all, because all he did hear was the endless ringing in his ears.

Jonghyun finally realized all of it. The same way Kyulkyung had been murdered he would now die too over whatever was inside of that flash drive.

“Stop it, leave him alone!” Dongho yelled.

“Then tell me what I need to know.” The man gave him a chance to speak, but Dongho fell into silence again. He had nothing to say and he couldn’t come up with a lie quick enough.

The masked man sighed in annoyance, rolling Jonghyun around on his back with his foot and not even the next second he had already fired his second shot point blank. This set off even more hellish screams.

Dongho darted his eyes peeled wide at the captor to beg for his friends life, he was stuttering, forcing himself to look the man in the eyes as proof that he spoke the truth.

“We would have told you everything by now if we knew! We don’t know, so please let us go.” Donghos brain had been so frayed he failed to acknowledge how serious Jonghyuns injuries could be, he hoped that the two could still just walk out of this.

The man with the gun kept it in place, threatening to fire again at any time, “Are you sure that you didn’t just maybe leave it somewhere laying around by accident?” He mocked.

The threats confused Dongho, and made him think hard about where he would have might of put an item he was sure he never even had. He looked down to the floor where wet drops had landed beneath his lowered head.

The screaming had ceased and now it was just deep breaths and hissing mixed with pained sobs in between. The captor realized that he would not be able to get anything out of the two in this state anymore, so this guy might as well could’ve been telling the truth.

“Clean this mess up,” The main man pointed at Jonghyun and the splatter of blood that he laid in flat, “I’ll keep this one here until he maybe remembers something.” The man holding Dongho nodded.

Dongho raised his chin, which had become wet and gross, to look at his captors separate him from Jonghyun. The steel doors opened and someone else came in to drag Jonghyun away as he could barely hop on one foot. The somehow bravely tallest held on, he even bit into his lip to muffle a pained yelp from the ears of his friend.

Unable to fully speak nor move from shock, Dongho watched his best friend disappear into the dark of the hallway never to be seen again, and his brain just kinda shut itself off there.

A chair was put in the middle of the room on top of a new sheet of plastic. The guy was thrown to sit on it, his arms and ankles again secured to his seat with tight zip ties to minimalize his escape. This time around Dongho didn’t even try to struggle, emotionally exhausted he just sat there and let the man lock him inside of the room alone.

At that time, Jonghyun was thrown in a small storage closet, where his face met rough landing against the floor. This room was just as cozy as the other one, bunch of plastic had been taped to the floor just minutes prior to prevent Jonghyun from making the place too messy.

The captors weren’t being nice to him at all, Jonghyun by now had figured that someone would be coming in to finish him any minute now. Perhaps separating him from Dongho was just a strategy to squeeze more information out of the two before killing them. Also, they couldn’t make up a lie if they were in different rooms.

Now that Jonghyun had room to think alone by himself and bleeding. By now he had visualized how Kyulkyung had died in full color – the police was involved in her murder and that’s why everything was so neatly covered up this whole time.

A grim thought happened to invade his mind, perhaps if Dongho had not contacted him from the start to help him uncover this, then the two men could have still lived by now. Although, in a small way Jonghyun was still grateful he had the chance to meet his best friend again regardless. He got the chance to tell Jonghyun that he loved him, even kiss him, it was more than he had ever wished for.

He struggled as his eyes continuously drooped to shut, and it was so hard to stay awake. Jonghyun hadn’t looked down to see where and if the bullets had struck him, in fact he hadn’t even moved it fearing that he would only lose blood even faster. His whole body was aching, from his neck to his toes, and he couldn’t imagine the source of that pain.

Suddenly inside of the dark tiny space, a bright light began to shine at him from above, for a second he thought he had been hallucinating it, but then when he winced his eyes open and looked up high he saw a ray of sun suddenly shining through a small window at the top.

Indeed it was really high up, although Jonghyun believed that if he stepped on something he could actually reach it. He had to quickly decide on what to do with that, to either risk it all by trying to escape or just stay here.

He though that in the same situation, Dongho would probably escape too. Because, if he was lucky then he might find someone working on the pier to beg them for help, even if the situation seemed helpless as is.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> same tws as last chaper apply to this one

It took Jonghyun long minutes to be able to sit up while in cuffs and hurting, but he still did it. Yet from there it took even longer to push himself up against a wall to stand, because now his injury was starting to hurt like hell burning inside out as if his wounds were getting bigger.

By now Jonghyun had realized where the gunshot had landed, he was hit in the leg somewhere below his knee. This wasn’t as bad, Jonghyun told himself, unless a major artery had been hit he would definitely survive it.

The man didn’t give up trying to stand and somehow hobbled onto of some fallen crates to get closer to the small window, tiny enough for just his head and shoulders to fit through, but no way to open it.

Jonghyun could try to jump up there and squirm through it like a worm, but that required for the window to be open first. Without a better way to go around this, Jonghyun chucked at it with the top of his skull in order to shatter the glass with force. He was hoping nobody could hear him doing this.

The first hit wasn’t successful and it already hurt his head like hell, but he tried once more, and then again until the glass started to shatter. At this point his head was probably bleeding, but he didn’t care and continued to ram the window until the hole was wide enough for him to dive through to break the rest.

Razor sharp pieces of glass stuck out from the corners of the windows frame pointy like daggers standing in the way if his escape.

Jonghyun was already scarred and cut up, so at that point he just decided to go on all out. The boy hopped on his healthy leg and angled his face to launch himself through the small window, and after only three attempts it somehow worked.

Now he was stuck with his head and neck out free the other side, while his torso helplessly dangled on the window frame gravity already pulling it back inside the storage room, where his feet were now far from the ground. He was balanced on his chest, trying to just shimmy his way on out through the shards of glass instead of being pulled back in.

All the pressure was on his chest and it was gradually pushing down lower on the frame. Jonghyun felt like he might suffocate like this already gasping for air, he struggled to speed himself up before he could fully though, resulting in more glass injury scratching down to his stomach.

At that point, like the heaviest end of a seesaw, he fell out the other side of the window, face first into a large opened container. It hurt more to climb out of that, and once he was on the hard pavement, he could now only crawl. At least he had escaped.

 

Dongho had been stuck in the room with that prick this whole time, the jerk threw punches at him to get a confession until the left side of Donghos face had swelled so much he could barely open his eye. 

He wasn’t afraid of this dude though. Dongho bravely spit blood from his mouth down to his own chin, not knowing if it had come from a split lip or something more serious, and at this point Kang didn’t care.

Dongho remained tight lipped throughout the whole thing trying to just endure it all until the end, whatever it might be. 

He didn’t mention Minhyuns name either, even though that guy was the one who had told him about the existence of these guys plans in the first place. Because Dongho definitely didn’t want that bastard to get tortured for the fuck of it too. At least that guy was probably in a hospital somewhere safe.

The questions Dongho was starting to get from the man wearing black were weird, and of course they all involved Kyulkyung, the person who originally held the thing that these guys wanted. These mobsters were relentless, working hand in hand with corrupt police to cover most of their tracks of murdering his ex in cold blood. 

Dongho even got to learn from this guy that the lady with the small, black dog living downstairs from Jonghyun, the only witness who could prove that Nayoung was with Kyulkyung before she had died, had recently passed away of old age. However Dongho didn’t believe that cause of death one bit, she had only been ill because of a sprained ankle.

The older man had grown tired of pushing Dongho around deciding to pause for a bit to catch a smoke by using the cigarette pack he had found on Kang. The man was still mocking him.

Dongho sat quiet carefully watching the man cover his vision with gross smoke, but now he had gone quiet. After being investigated for so long, Kang had decided to ask his own questions.

“Were you the bastard that killed Kyulkyung?” He spat at his captor making him laugh.

“Depends on who you ask.” He pulled the cig from his mouth to closely observe how well lit was the flame in front of the tied man.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Dongho didn’t watch his angry tone before his own kidnapper. He growled while tied to his seat, like he was barking to attack the man who had shot Jonghyun, ready to rip off his head.

Suddenly through the door came one of the other men accompanied with the officer Kwak, who was the odd one out here by wearing an actual cop uniform. The captor quickly lit out the cig on the floor instead across Donghos cheek like he had originally intended. Something was wrong here.

The man who had just arrived was slightly out of breath, “Sir, the other one escaped, but we still managed to recapture him.” 

Suddenly, Donghos heart had just dropped, he had really hoped Jonghyun could have gotten out by now.

Donghos captor turned around in anger, almost hissing steam from his nostrils. “Just go get rid of him already, we don’t need that one.” The man pulled his cooled gun out again and passed it to the other man who was not armed himself.

Enraged by such careless words, Dongho twitched in his seat and thus the legs of the chair almost left the ground when he further tried to jump at the speaker.

The other mobster nodded and ran to arrange everything for it. Although, his assistant Kwak did not leave the room just as quickly, standing frozen in shock when realizing that these mobsters actually had meant it when they had joked about murdering these guys and feeding their bones to the pigs. It wasn’t a joke.

The main man in charge noticed Aarons dead eyed stare at the ground and spoke to him, “You will get your bonus after we are done here today.”

It didn’t reassure Aaron for what he had done by participating in this, but wanting to get out of this horrible torture room, he bowed his thanks and ran out before his employer could see his need to vomit from seeing Kang tied to a chair and beaten to pulp.

The mobster then turned to Dongho to mock the squeamish cop who had just now left the room by talking behind his back, “Your sister is going to be so devastated when she finds out that her good for nothing, cop hating brother and his drug addict friend had died in a police shoot-out.”

“Huh?” Dongho made a sound, instantly tasting steel in his mouth after moving his lips to say it.

The same guy started to smile wide under his facemask seeing Donghos confused reaction, then he pulled the mask down to his own chin revealing a row of crooked, grey teeth and a nasty gummy smile.

“Unfortunately, our courageous officer Kwak would have to give up his life in order to protect the great country.” The guy chuckled and put his mask back on shortly after.

The man in binds finally understood what was going on. They were staging this to make it look like Dongho and Jonghyun had gotten gunned down by that cop, which meant that these bastards would kill that clueless guy as well just to further cover their tracks. They really had no heart.

Dongho voiced his thought, “You are insane.” The other guy didn’t turn to respond not really feeling the need to, because once he comes back into the room to tell Dongho that his friend is dead, that will serve as the better revange.

In that moment, Dongho started to get what the bastard meant by flashing that nasty smirk at him again once before exiting the door – he was going to hurt Jonghyun. 

Within seconds of being left alone in the room, it felt like Dongho was drowning, his own lungs were denying oxygen from the shock. Jonghyun couldn’t die. Please not him, Dongho screamed inside of his own head as nothing worthwhile, but just painful sobs would come from his still bleeding mouth.

Soon, the man was tugging at his binds with everything he had left until the chair ended up toppling over. Whilst in the fall the time had became slow, the chair was swaying to meet the floor.

Dongho could almost see the sweat drops gathering from the tips of his bangs spread free into the air like glimmering dust in front of those huge shining lights. Then the time seemingly sped up again, the next thing he felt was getting his skull slapped hard against the concrete floor and in a flash it all became black for him.

Only later Dongho became awake again, but he was still dazed like he had just come off a carousel ride, everything around him was spinning. On the bright side, he could move his feet again as after the fall they had come undone from the legs of his chair. Although he could yet not move much else, because it hurt.

He was in pain, from punches, from the fall and from the fear of being left alone without Jonghyun. Dongho could live a year without Kyulkyung, who he had thought was the love of his life, but he couldn’t imagine a day living without Jonghyun.

He arched his chin up to the door that now looked at him sideways, the whole room was sideways and he seemingly had no clue why yet. Someone stepped in, cursing at him for making noise.

Dongho didn’t care to listen, he just stared forwards at that door that Jonghyun had been taken from him through, the last place where he had seen him was in that door.

The mobster kneeled to Dongho, angrily hissing at the mess he had made by tearing away the plastic sheets from under him with the chair. 

The canine eyed man had already ordered to have the deed done by then and was taking off his gloves in front of Dongho to mock him, but that somehow didn’t click for the captive, he just kept staring at that door instead.

The man waved his fingers in front of Donghos face to get his attention, but it was like the guy was hurt in the brain or something, laying on his cheek in puddle of his own drool while his pupils sat in one spot without blinking. The mobster considered that maybe the fall had done something with his head, in which case there was no point of really keeping him alive and unwilling to reveal where that flash drive could be.

From over his shoulder, the man could hear someone else silently approach him, so the man looked to see who the bastard coming in uninvited was. Right behind him officer Kwak stood there with this dead eyed stare, in a weird turn of events, pointing his own cop gun directly at the squatting mobster.

The man took his facemask down agitated by this kind of nonsense, “What the fuck are you pointing that at me for, kid?” He cursed.

Aarons look didn’t change, he was standing there like stone, the only movement in his body being his pointer finger twitching over the trigger of the gun.

“Your people killed my friend.” Aaron spoke with no emotion in his voice. 

The other man turned his expression into an angry frown and only got to say, “What?” before Aaron had fired his gun splitting the mans face open in every direction of the room with the bullet.

The body fell down flat before Aarons very eyes, gradually his face began to show grief only after he had already killed the mobster. His hands trembled more and more until the same gun completely fell from his hands along with the keys for the Donghos and Jonghyuns cuffs.

The captive responded to the gunshot late, raising his ear from the ground when realizing that there was now a gross body missing half of its face laying directly in front of him. Dongho looked up to face a very horrified and confused cop, which was for some reason his face was bathed in tears.

Without bothering to understand what had even just happened the tallest of the two demanded for his release, “Untie me—?” Dongho whispered to him, glancing down at the keys by the gun on the floor he had used.

Originally Aaron had not come here to free Dongho, he had only come to kill this other bastard and clearly had no idea what to do about Kang. But while stuck in a state of confusion, the young cop just did right as he was told by Dongho. After all, doing what other people wanted was what Aaron always did.

When Dongho sat up he quickly began to regain all of his senses and in horror and disgust immediately scooted away from the gore on the floor to look at the cop who had done it, “Where’s Jonghyun?”

The man did not respond, in fact that question had actually somehow startled him. Without thinking, Aaron disappeared from the room into a direction even he was unsure of. Dongho followed shortly after, taking a hold of the mans gun to defend himself.

Before Dongho could even find any other of the mobsters in his way, the cop was already quick gone and upon entering the next hallway he saw why.

Another bleeding body laid face down further down the warehouse, and then two more, even a forth. That rookie cop had killed them all behind the thick steel door away from Dongho while they had been off-guard and unarmed. The scene was gruesome, but Dongho didn’t waste time getting lightheaded over it, as long as it was easier to search the building for Jonghyun.

He clutched to his side that had taken most of fall after the chair had toppled, and wandered through endless rooms of storage. One dark space lead to another until he finally found Jonghyuns imprisonment, which by now stood entirely empty, only his book bag and a streak of fresh blood on the floor existed as proof that a body had once been there.

He wasn’t defeated yet. Dongho looked up just as a gush of wind came through the broken glass window and his heart filled with hope to still find his friend alive. He remembered to grab the bag and ran outside to chase the light of the already dimming sky.

The steel gate was left busted open and swayed out of place as if something had hit it, and there was exactly one cop car missing. 

Dongho ran through the torn open gate to endlessly run around the pier hoping to find Jonghyun. He yelled his name over the high stacked containers until the sun had gone missing behind the sea glimmering in the far distance.

While in middle of a jog, the shortest suddenly stopped believing he had heard a faint voice call his own name. 

He turned around to look for the source of that weak sound inside the dark of the abandoned pier. And there he was, down below in the shadows and leaning against a wall of a colorful container – Jonghyun.

He was weak, face drained of blood and hardly breathing. Dongho had to bring him to a hospital, but only now he realized – how was he to take Jonghyun anywhere if the countries justice had already failed him and now cops were after them, as if they were violent criminals.

At anytime, more assassins working with bribed police could come after them again and snatch just Jonghyun from hospital where he would be defenseless. 

They were just like Kyulkyung now who was running from the same thing. Knowing what had happened with her plan of trying to escape, Dongho had to learn that just like in her case, there really was no way out.

The cuffs were undone and the injured male was bought back to the warehouse where the cars were. Dongho proceeded to hijack one of them in order to drive Jonghyun somewhere temporary where they could stay hidden for at least now.

 

It was barely over two months ago when Kyulkyung and Nayoung had arrived to visit Jonghyuns home in his town. The two women were rushing up the steps counting down the odd numbers on each door until they stood at the one.

They both wore hoodies tight around their head with hair hidden inside in case anyone was to see them here. Nayoung was still slightly slower than the other woman, putting all of the strength in her legs to climb up to the right floor.

Kyulkyung knocked on the floor for the fifth time already to no response, she would become terrified in case Jonghyun wasn’t actually home at this time, because clearly there was no time for her to wait around.

The slower woman saw the worry in her eyes and realized the situation. Her friend whined, “You are kidding me! We went all this way.” Nayoung watched her friend almost kick her foot at the door out of anger.

As a desperate measure, Nayoung reacted by pressing down the door handle, but to her surprise the door had not been locked at all. The two women stared at one another in disbelief before quickly entering without a question.

They didn’t have to call Jonghyun out by his voice to see that he wasn’t actually present in the small apartment. The two women panicked again, they had not planned for Jonghyun to just not be here.

Kyulkyung knew that the boy was a homebody, he rarely ever left his house unless he got to the point of accidentally starving while too busy with playing video games.

“Wait, do you hear that?” Nayoung tilt her ear towards a sound coming from the bathroom, the sound of running water. Kyulkyung listened closely, slowly inching her feet towards the bathroom door that was swung just slightly open for her to peek inside.

The two ended up breaking through the door once seeing the scene inside of the bathroom. Jonghyun was in there, sitting blanked out and with one arm stretched long outside of an overflowing tub. The water that had been pouring over the edge in waves had already reached far across the yellowed floor floor titles.

Kyulkyung ran to check his hand for pulse to see if he was even alive and surely she felt it, his heart was literally racing. 

“Kyulkyung, he is out of it.” Nayoung only had to look the man in the eyes to conclude that – they were empty and glassy, focused at nothing.

Bottles of strong alcohol sat next to medicine containers and painkillers, as if the bastard had been doing both simultaneously, getting himself high. Thus, Jonghyun was unresponsive and their plan was in shambles.

“What the hell do we do now?” Kyulkyung freaked. 

The two were meant to discuss with Jonghyun, convince him to accept the dangerous flash drive for safe keeping, so he could later pass the evidence on it over to Dongho if something bad ever happened to the two women before they managed to get away.

The two runsways shot the fingernails to their lips, until one finally came up with something, “I can just hide it around here somewhere regardless.”

After saying that, Nayoung began to look around his apartment before Kyulkyung interrupted her, “Are you out of your mind? We can’t just simply leave it here!” Kyulkyung argued like it was the end of the world, for her it surely was.

Nayoung didn’t show signs of change on her face, there was no better way for now. And Kyulkyung obviously could not come up with anything better than that either.

After thinking about it for a second she had decided to give in to the idea, “Fine. Hide it somewhere where he won’t find it right away. In a safe place.” Her friend nodded.

“But what about him though?” Nayoung then shrugged her face to the side looking at the pitiful man, who had bothered to even add bubbles to his bath for himself, but not bothered read the instructions at the back of his bottle of strong meds.

“We can’t just leave him!” Nayoung grabbed the other woman’s hands while trying to convince her to help the guy. Kyulkyung wasn’t that heartless.

“I’ll go look around for his phone to call the ambulance and you just go look for a place to hide the flash drive, okay?” Kyulkyung watched her girlfriend signal a thumbs up and clumsily run off like she had something stuck to her leg.

Upon finding a cracked cellphone, assuming it belonged to the man, Kyulkyung soon talked to a dispatcher describing the mans condition real time. It wasn’t too difficult for her to deliver quick answers, since before all of this chase she had studied to become a doctor herself. After a while Nayoung came to get her.

“Did you hide it?” Kyulkyung hanged up the call despite the voice telling her not to leave the line yet. Nayoung nodded proud, “I put it in a really silly place, but I’ll tell you about it later!”

Kyulkyung smiled with her eyes and got up to finally flee the apartment, but not before draining the bath to make sure that the guy would be safe until better help could arrive.

That day had been the same one when Jonghyun had accidentally flooded his neighbors down below, and regrettably he could not recall it too well.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw // graphic description of injury. (featuring diy medical practices based on wikihow step-by-step guides and an imaginary degree in webmd dot com studies. please don't attempt any of this yourself)

Sound of heavy steps echoed from dark, hallow rooms, the wooden flooring creaking far down the empty halls. The small, tightly narrow hallways of Kyulkyungs and Nayoungs house made it easier to balance Jonghyun hanging arm over the strong shoulder of Dongho.

Coming here was surely foolish, but at the same time, there were not many places where the two men could seek shelter anymore. In a way, maybe nobody would even expect for them to be stupid enough to reside here of all places, because this place was directly in the eye of the storm. They would borrow the space for just tonight and then quickly look for other possibilities soon.

Dongho sat his injured friend on top of what looked like a dinner table, that still sat in the room untouched due to its age and size. The short male gently lifted Jonghyun down into a laying position, using the old desk as a makeshift operating table if it came down to it.

The house would have electricity or running water, so on they way here Dongho had stopped at a corner store and bought some candles and as much bottled water, paper towels as he could afford to pay for in cash. Dongho showed up inside of the store beaten up and clothes covered in someone else’s blood, he had to flee from it pretty soon hoping that the owner had not called to notify the cops.

After their escape Jonghyun was left completely fucked up, hardly breathing, scratched up when the glass that had sliced his skin, shot at two times, and worst of all, he was still awake to live through it all afterwards. In fact Jonghyun was aware enough to understand that he should try to not whine, as it would attract attention, but how could he not when he was in this much pain.

Dongho ignored his own trauma, believing that he had been only slightly bruised and swollen, he had it nowhere near as bad as Jonghyun did.

The room became a bit more bright once Dongho placed some ground candles around, using wide eyed flashlights as the biggest source of light to aid him on treating his friend.

When laying still on his back, Jonghyun had become even more aware of his surroundings, he regained his senses enough to even speak full sentences. Yet Dongho would hush him and tell him not to right now.

The boys heart was rushing and adrenaline is what kept him so awake now, but the threat of him passing out was still high. With much struggle he tried to arch his head up to see where Dongho was standing. He watched the guy nervously waving and hovering his hands above his friend unsure what to do first.

The guy was no longer actively bleeding out, or at least somewhat. Dongho had tied cloth to cut off the blood flow in his friends leg first. But there was still blood, that’s when he found the other gunshot wound – right in the shoulder. Jonghyun hadn’t even realized he had been actually hit twice all the way until now.

For the time being Dongho tied another rag around that shoulder the same way too. It scared him to know that he was still going to have to look at the injury and see how bad it really was anyways.

In panic Dongho ran from the room in search of scissors or anything like it. He figured that Kyulkyung was training to be a doctor, so she at least had to have something in this house left behind that Dongho could borrow, even a first aid instruction manual would be a godsend at this point.

He swung his flashlight from one end of the room to the other, shining light across a variety of furniture, waking up angry clouds of dust rising from the floors of the old and airless house to fog in his way.

There was nothing of sorts on the tables, so he skipped over to the other drawers in search for anything at all, taking with him any kind of cloth and sheet that was still there.

He desperately tugged at those same locked drawers, until he did find an unlocked cabinet with a few screwdrivers and notably a box cutting knife. He grabbed only the cutter and ran back to the brightest room of the house.

Alone in the room, Jonghyun was squirming on the table whilst struggling to sit up, yet one of his legs wasn’t listening. He would hold himself up by resting the weight on the back of his elbows, spine arched away from the table. Jonghyun hissed, wincing his eyes shut at the state of his own body when he got to see his injured limb. It scared him to think he could perhaps lose function of his leg more than it scared him of dying.

Dongho came back with his box cutter and began to rip apart Jonghyuns jeans to get to the spot of the bullet straight away with no prior warning. The tallest whimpered in sight of the blade.

“Holy shit. Don’t touch it, what are you doing?” Jonghyun was clueless to realize that his friends help was good, perhaps even lifesaving.

“I need to check for an exit wound.” Dongho explained making his friend even more terrified.

“Exit wound?” Just as Jonghyun had asked, Dongho proceeded to lift the leg up to see underneath it, causing his friend to erupt into a pained yelp.

“Sorry.” The short male apologized. Jonghyuns whimper made him realize that there might be something else wrong with the leg though.

In relief, Dongho exhaled so hard as if he had just won a footrace, his eyes were still nervously darting from side to side. He happily announced, “Okay, this is good, there is an exit wound on your leg.”

“How is that good!” Jonghyun was still gritting his teeth even after Dongho had laid his leg back down. He got a quick answer, “That means I won’t have to fish around trying to look for it.”

“You can’t be serious?” Jonghyun gulped at the thought of a foreign object being stuck lodged inside of his body at this point, because going to hospital to have it removed was not an option for them.

Dongho had taken away the cloth pressed to Jonghyuns leg and put it back after flipping it around to the dry side. Besides the obvious elevated bullet hole, the whole leg was also bruised way above his knee and down to his ankle, it did not look good.

“The bullet must of gone through your bone.” Dongho opted not to touch it anymore, making the mental note to later secure it with something straight, “It’s broken.”

“Fuck.” Jonghyun cried, realizing that now they won’t be able to get far if he could not walk anymore.

The shortest tried to not become a crying and distressed mess too, he set himself straight. “Now your shoulder.” He commanded and Jonghyun shut his eyes in preparation.

Donghos fingers were shaking as he worked his cutting tool through Jonghyuns clothing. The tallest held his breath not to wince too much as Dongho then lifted his upper body to look at the back of his shoulder.

To his shock, the mans back was clean and without a scar, Dongho then carefully laid Jonghyun back down to announce their biggest fear. “I can’t find an exit would on your shoulder.” He spoke as calmly as he could.

“What does that mean?” Jonghyun raised his head again to look at the wound on his shoulder himself, it looked ugly and badly clotted.

“I can’t do anything about it, the bullet is stuck in there.” He could only press the wound closed with another piece of cloth by borrowing the shirt fabric he had previously cut from Jonghyuns shoulder, leaving the place untreated.

“Get it out of me then!” He begged his friend who was unable to do such a thing. “There’s a lot of veins in the shoulder. If I try to take it out you could bleed to death.” Dongho spoke.

“What if I get an infection from it? I want it out of me, dude!” He cried for Dongho to do something about it, but he still wouldn’t budge. 

“Listen, there are people who’ve been shot and continue to live with projectiles still in their bodies, so maybe we don’t have to pull it out?” Dongho tried to convince the other any way possible.

Yet the more Jonghyun thought about that bullet, the more he could seemingly feel there actually being something stuck inside of him, it terrified him to the point where he became somewhat claustrophobic, and thus he was enraged when Dongho still refused to take it out of him. 

“I don’t want to die with a bullet in me Dongho!” He cried through the pain as his neck muscles had tensed from stress.

Dongho didn’t know what else to say, he wasn’t going to attempt something like that all by himself. Absolutely not.

After not responding for too long, Kang watched in horror as Jonghyun proceeded to reach for his own shoulder to remove the fresh rag to squeeze the bullet out by himself. The jerk wasn’t even thinking straight, he would only hurt himself doing it and make the bleeding worse.

“Jonghyun, don’t do that!” Dongho pressed his friends arms to his sides, leaning into the boys face. Jonghyuns eyes had turned from being white to being bloodshot red and were twitching in their sockets, “Then get it out of me!”

Dongho stuttered, trying to go against the begging of his friend. But his heart continuously broke as Jonghyun would ignore his arguments for the next minutes on end, until his mouth had dried. Jonghyun just wanted to get it out of him, he couldn’t think straight.

“I literally can’t do this.” He spoke in apology, but Jonghyun would only shake his head. So after much contemplation, Dongho decided to do it, all he needed were maybe gloves and something to pull the bullet with.

“Should I try?” Donghos pained words made Jonghyun smile in relief, “Yeah, please hurry.”

The shortest had remembered about the screwdrivers from earlier, probably not the best tools to use for the given task, but a magnetic screwdriver could help finding the steel bullet if it was not too deep.

He left the room again to find the same drawer, but in panic he had forgotten which one it was. The furniture was about to tilt after Dongho had unloaded all of the drawers, but he could still not find it again.

He turned around to face the table, miraculously finding a first aid kit just laying there out on the table. Dongho thought he was losing it, because he had just checked the table when he first arrived and swore that it wasn’t there before. He cursed at himself for being such an idiot.

Dongho shrugged it off and took the whole case to the same room as Jonghyun, unloading it to find clamps and tweezers he could attempt to use. At that point the tallest could barely hold his own head up anymore.

Plastic gloves were found in the box, Dongho hastily put them on and then grabbed the tweezers before stationing himself above Jonghyuns shoulder. “You should probably bite into something before I do this?” He worried.

“Hell no.” His friend barked back at him, Jonghyun didn’t have time for that, plus he needed to be able to speak. Dongho nodded and moved on.

“Wait a sec, what are you going to do?” Jonghyun feared his friend coming near him with the gloves on already.

Dongho paused, “What do you think?” Jonghyun stared at him with much uncertainty, his eyes landing on his friends finger dressed in a glove pointing at the wound.

After another nod of approval, Dongho had to hold the boys shoulder with a grip, already predicting that he would probably not like this. Dongho had decided to touch it first to see if it was even possible to remove the thing if it had already gone too deep into the shoulder. In that case they should better not even try this.

Jonghyuns eyes went huge in preparation, shooting his eyes from his injury to Dongho and back. He wanted to get rid of that thing stuck inside of him, but he was also so scared.

“Dongho, wait—” He yelped. “Yeah?” Dongho pulled back in panic in case Jonghyun had suddenly changed his mind.

“Never mind, just do it already.” Jonghyun rushed him. He could feel the next wave of his leg burning with pain that troubled him even more than his dumb shoulder. 

To ease himself, Jonghyun tilted his neck far to the side until the muscles in his neck were pulled straight like a bowstring for his friend to observe. Dongho wasn’t just going to be staring alone, he had to touch it.

Meanwhile Jonghyun had closed his eyes shut in horror, he could feel his friend touch the scar, his index finger pressing directly onto it in search for the object. And then it hurt, it hurt real bad, but Jonghyun promised not to open his eyes to look at what his friend was doing. 

Then it hurt worse, he could feel the bullet move from under his skin and then the most terrifying whimper of pain came of Jonghyun. He could longer keep his eyes closed, they went wide and stared down to look at his scar being poked and instantly looked away again.

Dongho was able to feel flat base of the bullet only a tiny distance from the entry point, and sighed in relief, “It’s not deep.” He pulled his hand away, trembling and bloody. 

Jonghyun was short of breath after making noise a while ago, he then continued to breathe hard to make the throbbing pain numb, believing it would help. In the small timeframe Dongho had already grabbed small tweezers and pushed Jonghyun back down flat, preventing him from sitting up no matter how much he wanted to this time.

“I’m gonna try to pull it out, you ready?” Dongho tried to make himself confident, but the shaking tone in his voice did the opposite.

His friend stopped him in a begging voice, “Dongho—” Jonghyun squeezed his opened eyes into thin lines, barely seeing his friend through his flickering long lashes. 

Dongho hesitated for a moment by biting his lip and then eventually pulled himself down to kiss the other, doing it for long enough to maybe get their mouths a bit nasty and tangled, but not enough to get them distracted.

Jonghyun felt a bit more at ease by then, but Dongho who was the one doing the bullet removal, was panting like he was going crazy. 

He spoke, “Stay with me, okay?” Jonghyun barely nodded, although he looked happy, “Hng.”

After setting himself up for it, the shortest had to make space for the tweezers to fit, as gently as he could he tugged at the skin around the area to stretch it thin. Jonghyun instantly went from looking at it directly, to shooting his neck away and almost bouncing his shoulders up from the flat table to hiss.

“I haven’t even done anything yet!” Dongho was having second thoughts when seeing his friend suffering. “Then just get it over with already!” Jonghyun yelled back, becoming annoyed with him.

Dongho took his word of advice and after having his teeth gritted, he tried to proceed, and this time Jonghyun swore not to move an inch. He just closed his eyes and tried to think about something nicer, anything but the cold sensation of a sharp medical instrument ever coming near him.

Even if Jonghyun tried not to pay attention to it, he could still hear everything as if the sounds around him had amplified. He could not escape the wound making a grotesque sound when his friend had somehow managed to finally dislodge the object. 

It was now probably sitting in there loose, with more blood pooling around the tweezers to make it impossible to see it anymore, but Dongho confidently claimed that he now had it.

When the tweezers began to clamp down Jonghyun saw colors flash underneath his eyelids, his heart raced full speed. Dongho didn’t announce the next time he would move his tool, believing that it would only make his friend more nervous ahead of it, and instead he just pulled.

The red bullet was out at once and Dongho didn’t even bother to hold his tool anymore, dropping it on the floor when in a rush and press a dry cloth to the freshly bleeding leftover wound.

In relief Jonghyun would pant, yet the pain would barely leave, it felt worse than it did before. Dongho yanked the whole med kit to him and sat Jonghyun up, trying to remember what to do next in a situation like this.

Probably disinfect, then bandage – he decided. Donghos hand rummaged in the first aid box and he found some rubbing alcohol, Jonghyun winced at the sight of it. There was no way they were going to put that on his open wound, it would literally burn him inside out and perhaps even make everything worse.

However it didn’t look like they had much of a choice in that matter, as they had no access to running water and the amount of bottled water they had was very limited.

The two decided to fuck it and instead of burning Jonghyun, just drown all the water they had, emptying multiple two-liter bottles on top of the two separate injuries until the floor below them had flooded. 

Jonghyun probably needed that water for later, but now they were only left with a single bottle of still water and no cash left for more. They couldn’t just risk going out to knock on peoples doors to ask when they were ripped up and both covered in blood. This was helpless.

Dongho did his best to bandage everything properly, the cloth was pressed tight and it was hard for Jonghyun to move his arm. The shortest told him it would be better if he just didn’t move at all for now.

When everything was in place, Dongho hopped to sit on the table and look down at his friend who had lost his energy, meaning his adrenaline rush was probably going down by now, so the pain would eventually come back.

“How do you feel?” Dongho asked, trying to act collected and professional about it.

Jonghyun wasn’t worried about that yet, only relieved by the fact that the bullet was no longer a problem. Yet something other than that now made him highly uncomfortable, “I feel really thirsty.”

Dongho didn’t like the sound of that. “You probably can’t drink right now, you’ve lost a lot of blood.” He spoke although he was hardly sure. Jonghyun kept whining about it as Dongho lifted him from the table and carried him to another cleaner room.

Jonghyun was fixed in the bed once belonging to Kyulkyung, the room was veiled pitch black with window shutters locked shut much like all the others. Dongho used his lighter to light a tiny candle light by the bedside, putting more around the stray corners of the room so that Jonghyun would not become disoriented in the dark.

By the time Jonghyun had reopened his eyes, his leg was already tied to a sturdy long piece of plastic that mimicked a cast for a broken leg. It had been put under a pile of pillows to stand elevated above his heart. Dongho believed it would help to prevent swelling, or at least he had heard something like that being once said by his then fiancé studying in medicine.

Dongho removed some curtains that were left behind and made a new use of them by turning them into bed cloth. Extra bandages were made from them as well just in case, but Dongho hoped that the injuries would just gradually heal up.

For now they didn’t even want to imagine how long it would take for that shattered leg to fuse though, in this state it would probably take months maybe even years for it to be of any use. If they ended up on the run, without stocked up antibiotics things wouldn’t be so well. As for the shoulder only time will show.

But for now Jonghyun only had to survive the night. Dongho laid my his side on the same bed reaching his arms around him. Even in his sleep Jonghyun would whine and whimper throughout the night.

 

The next day had come, but within the shut windows and doors of the dark house it was hard to tell that it was morning already. Even though Jonghyun was mostly asleep, his ears would still twitch to the loud grumble coming from Donghos stomach. Neither of them had eaten a single thing yet.

The two remembered how the original plan for them was to leave straight away, just wing it until they were out far from the city. Kyulkyung had ran from the city too, she had the right idea, but in the end even that didn’t save her.

They now started seeing the big picture, for them to be able to go anywhere right now was basically impossible. Jonghyun was barely surviving, his weak body was not putting up much of a fight.

Dongho sat on the edge of the bed in just his undershirt and shorts knees sitting wide apart, rubbing his tired face that had spawned more wrinkles overnight than ever before. A first aid band aid now crossed over the bridge of his nose, another one stitched his split eyebrow back together. 

But he still couldn’t worry fir himself more than he did for Jonghyun. Why did this have to happen to him when he was already so frail, why couldn’t those guys just have fired the bullet rounds at Dongho instead, he thought. The man wished he could somehow switch places with his friend, because Jonghyun had done nothing to deserve this.

Dongho thought about very drastic things to save Jonghyun, like sneaking onto a fishing boat and heading for a foreign coast. Yet living the rest of their lives as illegal runaways did not sound too enticing. He had to rule it out for now.

At this point, Dongho wanted to know where that damn flash drive which everyone was after like crazy actually was. He believed that they could use it to save themselves if only they could expose whatever data was stored on it.

Not before letting out a deep sigh, Dongho would turn to look over his own shoulder at the other man, who was covered in bruises and cuts laying in bed without a shirt.

Jonghyuns body was burning up and was sweating profusely, his face was practically giving off steam when touched, burning like a furnace. To make matters worse, Jonghyuns neck rained with sweat and the bandage at his shoulder had to be changed often. It had been already well over four hours since he gad started showing a fever, and it didn’t look like it would go down anytime soon either.

Dongho pushed himself back into the bed to hover over his best friend, affectionately pressing their foreheads together.

“Stay with me Jonghyun.” He spoke to the motionless man who could now only communicate with breaths – soft when he was calm, hard when he needed attention. 

“Don’t die, please don’t die on me like this.” Dongho begged him, but all he could do for now was to just wait.


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the only lies i like are the lies about my frequent updates

Dongho had been hugging Jonghyuns sleeping face for long, his eyes were shut just like his friend and the man always stood as still as a statue, presumably waiting until Jonghyun would get better again.

Jonghyun was only getting weaker, his lips had lost all color and his skin appeared almost ghastly transparent. The ill male still needed a doctor to cure him otherwise he’d get worse.

The other had no idea what he would do without Jonghyun at this point. Back when Dongho hated his friend he would continue to live his life purely out of spite, but now that things had changed, he couldn’t think of another day if he lost his only best friend forever.

Jonghyuns long dark bangs became a sticky mess tangled across his sweating forehead, Dongho swept the hair away from his eyes, but his hair had just gotten too long to stay neat anymore.

While Dongho was too occupied with lovingly caressing his friend, he did not hear the sound of wood flooring creaking from outside in the hallway. In fact for the past day the guy had failed to notice all small signs that something was not at all right in this place, and that maybe they should have not come here at all.

The walls had eyes, Jonghyun felt it. Like there was an eerie presence watching over them in this house. He feared that they might have been found by the bad guys already, but Dongho brushed away his claims as simply paranoid dreams. Kang always remained foolishly optimistic, even in a hopeless time like this.

A shadow appeared to make quiet steps close to their bedroom, flashing by the doorframe behind Donghos back. Jonghyun suddenly whimpered in his sleep, his body reacting to a sudden gush of cold wind entering the room, that is when his friend took notice too.

Dongho flashed his eyelids open to realize they were no longer alone, and before he could turn around to fight the intruder, a very distinct click came from right behind of Donghos head rendering him motionless and unable to look back when he gad frozen in fear. The click of a loaded hand gun.

His eyes instantly shot to where he had left his own gun by the bed, but it was way too far out of reach for him to grab it easily. The stranger seemed to read his thought, and pressed the back of their gun barrel into the back of his scalp.

Despite his will to survive telling him not to, Dongho would still instinctively yank forwards and around, arms shielding Jonghyun to protect him in case if the attacker was to fire a shot. Surprisingly, while the stranger had the chance to shoot Dongho dead for that sudden movement, they had not done it and instead they took a defensive step back.

The shortest man now faced the intruder, and their facial features slowly began to morph into focus inside of the shadows. Their face looked mean, anything but non-threatening. When Dongho first fully saw the figure with the gun, his mind froze in thought.

“Where is the flash drive?” Kyulkyung stood with her arms stretched out far, one eye shut closed in preparation to fire at the point right between the eyes of Dongho.

The man continued to stare in dull silence, his eyes had become as wide as two full moons up until the same woman demanded it for the second time, “I said, where’s the flash drive?” She repeated.

Suddenly, Donghos brain had clicked. He realized that this was reality, he wasn’t just dreaming. In response to the order, the mans eyebrows arched angry and his throat made a nasty yell seeing Kyulkyung, of all people, dare to point a gun at the two of them.

“What the hell is this? I thought you were fucking dead this whole time!” He warned her not to near him or Jonghyun, scared shitless.

“Just answer my question.” She twitched the gun gripped tight in her hands ready to turn Donghos brain into pink mist at any given second.

Kang couldn’t believe this, he lowered his head to vent to the floor, “I don’t fucking know. I don’t know about your stupid evidence or whatever.”

Then he raised his head back up to yell directly into the face of his ex, “Why would I know?” The two men had nothing to do with this mess, they were caught in the crossfire they didn’t wish to be a part of.

His petty wrath made the woman tilt her jaw to the side in agitation. She clicked her tongue and finally put her gun low, because Kyulkyung could tell that Dongho wasn’t lying, he was a horrible liar.

“I need to find it, it still has to be somewhere.” She spoke like she was speaking only to herself, prompting Dongho to break out into another angry sob. 

“You evil wench.” He began to tremble in grief. The woman tilted her annoyed eyebrow up watching Dongho slip into a freak out, for obvious reasons. After all his ex had literally just come back from the dead.

Dongho was already on the verge of tears, helplessly hugging Jonghyun to his chest, his friend was by that point no longer responsive. The pair were such a pitiful sight thing to look at. Jonghyuns leg had been laughably patched up and the ex medicine student expected nothing better of Kang.

She let the gun sit in her lowered hand and without a threat took a step forwards to see how bad Jonghyun really was up close, only to be cut off by Donghos mad hiss.

“Don’t touch him!” He both demanded and begged, his eyes throbbing with red. “Relax, Kang.” She spoke in a mocking calm voice, “I just want to see how he is doing.”

“No, don’t come near us.” Dongho hugged the man harder, leaning further back into the bed as if Kyulkyungs closeness alone was not safe and being in the same room as her would do the two men harm.

Kyulkyung made a proud chuckle, “Don’t make me remind you how that med kit from yesterday got there.” Dongho stopped shaking to realize that she must of placed in the house there for him to find, while she had remained in hiding.

“I had no clue if the two of you were being followed all the way to here, I couldn’t risk it.” She apologized for not having come out to help the two much sooner.

The boy stared at her in confusion slightly losing his fear of her, “Wh—what are you?” She snickered in irony, tucking one of her long strands of hair behind her own earlobe.

She ignored the question, going right to the table near the bed, retrieving Donghos gun to herself and put it away. The short man flinched seeing her just take it, holding close to Jonghyun in fear she might use it.

“Bring Jonghyun upstairs, we need to help him first.” She stepped back, throwing a thumb behind herself to gesture at the door. 

Dongho hesitated, so she asked again, “Unless you want him to die quicker, or something?”

He grinded his teeth together, realizing he had no choice and as a matter of fact, he shouldn’t object to a person who is pointing a gun at you. He picked Jonghyun up on his back and followed out into the dark corridor, where a light shined from a hole in the ceiling at an end of a deep hallway.

The house indeed did have a third floor unlike Minhyun had claimed, all of those wires running to the attic were for a generator that quietly made light and electricity for the person who had secretly been living there for the past two months.

The room in the attic reminded of some kind of fallout shelter, long lasting food rations were stored in a cooled cupboard near the deep end of the room. A heater quietly hummed in the background.

A makeshift kitchen area was a grill on the floor surrounded by multiple mattresses which had been laid out in a circle. There was also a separate bathroom with running water which came through pipes from a well in the backyard that Dongho had previously not seen.

The place was furnished for the living of more than one person, however Kyulkyung sat in the middle of this small attic all by herself. She had already been preheating the small floor oven while it took Dongho a while to carry Jonghyun all the way up the steep steps without bruising his legs against the steep steps.

For a change, Kyulkyung helped the other man carefully lay Jonghyun down, by first stacking pillows under his shoulders and that bad leg. A proper clean duvet was folded next to him for when would get the chills.

“Is he going to be okay?” Dongho asked a little too soon, his eyes had been carefully peeled only on Jonghyun. Everything else had kinda just fallen out of his head at the time, even the gun pointed at him.

The woman ignored to answer him, focusing on loosening the threads of bandages to look at the injury herself and see if there was anything else that could be done until Jonghyuns fever goes away. Luckily, she already had strong medication on the go, further confirming the woman had really planned out to live here for long.

“We will see.” A kind voice escaped her mouth late. The woman then suddenly turned to Dongho, who was sitting on his heels and twiddling his thumbs.

Out of nowhere Kyulkyung would throw him some canned food, “You like beans? I hope you havw nothing against bean soup, because that’s all you are gonna eat.”

Dongho caught the unopened tin can in air reviewing the import food that was going to be everyone’s breakfast, lunch and dinner for today. Kyulkyung had been living off from this stuff alone for weeks.

“If you’d like a treat, you can go find some canned pineapple in that cupboard.” She had lost vision of her ex, now focusing only on her patient.

It was so strange seeing Kyulkyung just casually sitting there, talking to Dongho again after a year had passed when he last seen her in person, it was as if she had not been gone for a day. 

After her time in hiding, in a way, right now she still looked even more well off than he was, by now Dongho was already stinking like a skunk by wearing dirty, bloodied clothing.

Truth be told, he did despise her, but somehow after believing that she had really been dead for so long, he realized that instead of hatred what he felt was plain and dull nothingness. She was like a different person to him, a stranger that he wasn’t sure he could still trust.

His body flinched in place once Kyulkyung sat Jonghyuns head up to wake him and make him swallow a pill. By reflex he feared that she would somehow hurt Jonghyun again. The woman noticed his brief overreaction and understood that by now she had completely lost Kangs trust, yet she didn’t really blame him. 

Jonghyun parted his eyes as a glass rim had neared to his mouth, he couldn’t remember the last time he had drank something, thus his body reacted almost on its own to swallow. Then the man was soon asleep again. Kyulkyung laid him back down on the pillow after it was all done, the best they could do was wait.

Just as Jonghyun was put under a thinner blanket, Dongho almost charged to get up and lay down next to him on the same mattress, as if Kyulkyung wasn’t even in the room. However she very quickly reminded him of her presence by drawing her gun at him the next second, freezing him in place from nearing the sick man.

“Nu-uh, you are going to tell me exactly what happened first.” The woman gave he other a deadly stare. She was acting like someone completely new to Dongho, all this time Jonghyun had been right all along, she really had multiple personalities to show.

From her hiding spot, Kyulkyung had seen Dongho bring Jonghyun in and use the place as a hideout downstairs, but she did not yet know what had happened to them. Although guessing by Jonghyuns injuries, the two morons had probably fallen into the same trap as her.

Originally she was scared to come out from her spot in the attic in case the two men had been followed on their way here. But the fact that Jonghyun was literally dying under the same roof and Dongho, that moron, had not bought him to a hospital instead, had finally made her give in after much consideration. All three of them were on the same boat by now anyways.

Dongho mockingly shot back in the same tone as her, not scared of a gun anymore, “Aren’t you gonna explain how are you even alive right now first?”

She rolled her eyes annoyed by a man interrupting her. Kyulkyung was never letting go of her gun until Kang realized that she was being very serious about shooting him if he did not tell her.

He began to nervously recount, “I’ve been looking for you for months, I even came to Jonghyun as my last resort.” 

She rest her suspicious expression to ask more curious questions, “You and Dongho found the remains of the body?” 

He nodded not expecting for the woman to know all that. Turns out she wasn’t completely cut off from the outside world while in hiding after all. But now Dongho was left with so many new questions, it that body wasn’t her – then who was it.

Dongho skipped forwards, “We got kidnapped, mobsters working with the cops would torture us for some fucking flash drive, yet we managed to escape.” 

It took him another deep breath to finish, his eyes frowning when landing on his hurting friend, “They shot him, they wanted to kill him and then me as well. So we came here to hide for now.”

Kyulkyung could have guessed as much all by herself. “And did you make sure that nobody followed you here?” She spoke strict. 

Dongho shook his head with hesitant confidence, “They were all gunned down by one of their own, I didn’t stick around to investigate, I just ran.”

The woman wiggled her eyebrows doubt, because that story didn’t really sound right, especially since Dongho had a gun on him as he arrived. Although, truth be told she could really care less if Dongho had gunned those pricks down by himself and was too scared to admit it, in fact she was rather thankful if they were truly dead now.

Hearing voices of the ongoing argument, Jonghyun began to slightly wake up, his chest was stinging with pain from the still burning shoulder. He opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Kyulkyung, who he had presumed was dead this whole time, so his next question came naturally.

“Am I dead?” He blinked his eyes open and closed trying to confirm he wasn’t just high on something.

The woman chuckled, “Not anymore.” She threw a glance over at Dongho who had also been fooled by her death up to now. “But how?” Dongho asked straight away.

The woman kept the gun at him this whole time with no intention of putting it down, especially after he had almost gotten Jonghyun killed by the mob due to his negligence.

Kyulkyung started to recall out loud, bringing the story back to her last day in Jonghyuns hometown.

The two women had just left Jonghyuns apartment after entrusting the flash drive containing all the evidence they had up to now used as blackmail to Jonghyun, in case anything were to happen to them if they never made it out of this mess.

She and Nayoung were slowly making their way back to Seoul to temporarily return to their attic hide out together. The next step of the plan was to make their big escape, take all the money and just flee to a different faraway country where that crooked cop wouldn’t lay a finger on them.

“Kyulkyung?” Nayoung called out the name of her girlfriend, worryingly turning around in the seat to look behind the car. 

“What is it?” Kyulkyung had flashed her eyes in the rearview mirror for a split second to see what it was that made the other woman frown.

“I think that car has been following us for a while.” She nervously fidgeted in her seat, observing a black car with tined windows trail behind them through the few streets.

Nayoung turned to the driver to speak in a panicked voice, “I think they found us!”

“Calm down, calm down.” Kyulkyung tried to warn the other as well as herself. “Let’s just turn in here.” She suggested to take a weird off road turn just to see if the car would still follow them then too.

Just as predicted, it took the sharpest turn just to go after them. It was clear as day that this wasn’t just a mere coincidence anymore.

Nayoung grew tense, “They are following us!” She kept turning around to stare at the car driving after them. 

By this point, Kyulkyung was freaking out realizing that there wasn’t a side road she could take to return back onto the street as she had thought. They had chased themselves onto a road that lead into a forest instead.

Kyulkyung shifted into a different gear and made her car go faster to out run her stalker, “Nayoung, get the gun.” She warned.

The other didn’t hesitate for a second, reaching into the backseat where their purse was. Just as Nayoungs head had come closer to the back, the whole back window of the car out of nowhere just shattered before her eyes. She screamed in fear retreating to the front seat without the said gun.

It had been a gunshot, multiple shots. Some of them even managed to pierce the car in the back, forcing Nayoung to lean her head down out of the way in terror.

Kyulkyung couldn’t outrun the other car anymore, the icy road lead straight downhill, it was way too dangerous. The attackers would keep taking shots at the car aiming for the tires to drive them to purposely crash.

The two women heard stray bullets just whoosh by their ears, that’s where Kyulkyung decided to hit the pedal dodging all tall trees in the way the best she could, and whilst in a state of madness, not noticing a small cliff waiting straight again. Nayoung didn’t get to warn her fast enough, the last thing she did was buckle her own seatbelt back in to prepare.

Her followers were cut off behind the trees in the way, but Kyulkyungs car was now in short flight. It hit the ground landing on all four wheels with bone shattering impact, but somehow the car still managed to survive for longer, running downhill top speed.

Kyulkyung saw branches of tree and bush claw at the front windshield and at that point she just shut her eyes. At the very bottom of the steep hill, the car hit something big that had caused it to yank forward and finally halt.

The engine was cooked burning with gray smoke. The distant gunfire had stopped and the only sound audible was the sound of a small river stream running nearby. Kyulkyung opened her eyes, her hair stuck in a mess over her face.

The glass in front was in pieces as well, Kyulkyung noticed multiple punctured bullet holes, some of which had hit the dashboard instead.

“You okay?” Kyulkyung immediately turned to her partner. Nayoung didn’t respond, she sat slouched in her seat with eyes closed.

Kyulkyungs eyes shifted down to the seatbelt that had prevented her friend from flying out the front of the car upon impact. The seatbelt had been tinted with deep red. Nayoungs chest riddled with bullet holes.

The woman returned from her story to the present. Meanwhile this whole time Dongho had been listening to the story with the most worrisome expression on his face. Jonghyun had instead shut his eyes, trying to focus on dealing with the next wave of pain.

“All I had to do was put my engagement ring on her finger to make us switch places. They didn’t care if it was actually Nayoung.” She explained.

The woman spoke to surprise the others, “If they had pronounced me as dead, then I wouldn’t be able to run anywhere anyways. Because as soon as I would get caught faking my death, they would arrest me and then silently finish me off.”

“I’m practically dead anyways, but before I die for real, I need to have my revenge.” Kyulkyung looked eerily content with her predicament.

She explained further, “They probably wanted to close the case as quickly as possible so nobody would look for me or save me.” Kyulkyung threw a glance at Dongho.

The guy opened his mouth after it had been stuck locked for so long, “Then, what about Nayoung—?” She gave the man a harsh wake up call, “My girlfriend is dead, Kang.”

Kyulkyung revealed how she blackmailed a person of power in order to help Nayoung find an organ donor and help her recovery. Kyulkyung had wished to earn just enough to be well off for the rest of their lives without worry, only to have her girlfriend die.

Dongho couldn’t stop putting himself in her shoes, since his situation with Jonghyun was similar. Kang belueved he had dragged his friend into something he never agreed to be a part of, and now he was suffering the most.

After an extended moment of silence, Kyulkyungs eyes shot away from the aim of her gun and lit up upon noticing Donghos empty eyed stare land on his friends hand that was now wearing her old ring. 

“I see you and Jonghyun have made up?” She spoke with a sinister tone in her voice, her lips curling into a sly smirk. Feeling mocked, Dongho was showing the angry veins in his neck again. 

He gritted his teeth when speaking, “You wench, you freaking lied to me about Jonghyun.” He judged the woman for her sin, yet she only rolled her eyes. “And you made him lie to me.” He continued his rant, but there was no reply.

He snort, “I even thought you loved me?” His boyfriend who had slightly dozed off was now again wide awake, and just as he realized what the argument was about, he had wished he wasn’t so awake.

“I don’t want to discuss this with you at the moment.” Kyulkyung playfully waved her wrist for an apology, finally lowering the gun.

This attitude only made Dongho rage more, he began shouting forbidden words at her so loud his throat was about to shatter. This high-pitched, squeaky hamster-like voice of his made Kyulkyung notice that the guy didn’t sound too healthy either, but so far the moron was too stupid to pay attention to himself.

“Truth be told, Kang. I only needed you to get closer to the guy I was blackmailing. Doing it made it harder for him to get rid of me.” She sounded like she was tired of having to explain it.

“What?” Dongho twitched like his whole life had been a lie. Jonghyun felt bad for all this, he always knew Kyulkyung was a turncoat, but he could not have warned Kang, who refused to believe this.

“Listen, my guy. I didn’t mean to use you like that. I liked you, but just not that much.” She suddenly spoke in a more sincere voice, asking of Dongho to be able calm himself down for a minute, despite all he had gone through because of her.

“If you or Kim Jonghyun ever found out about the blackmail, you would then ruin all of my plans. So to prevent that from happening, I had to cut you both off in a way in which you would never contact me again, or interact with one another to try to investigate me.” She spoke with certainty in her voice, like she couldn’t be wrong. 

Dongho had to laugh, “Your plans, huh?” Now the female started to lose temper with him acting up too, so she decided to reveal the big secret. 

“He could have easily gotten you involved as well,” She revealed, making his temples draw sudden heat as she spoke next, “Your brother in law.”

“That guy murdered a person in cold blood, I took evidence and then started blackmailing him.” Kyulkyung finished up. Somehow Dongho didn’t have hard time believing the story, his sisters husband was shady as hell for previously denying the obvious police corruption.

“What the hell.” He hissed in disbelief. By going to that crooked cop and begging to help, Dongho had essensially fucked himself over. The cop realized that Kang knew too much, and placed a hit on him.

Dongho shot back, “What about that other bastard I shot, Hwang?” Kyulkyung suddenly sat straight, “Shot?”

“An accident.” Dongho shrugged pretending to be innocent as per usual. 

“I’m guessing he probably deserved it then?” She joked, Dongho didn’t laugh back.

She switched to formal speech, “Hwang knew I had survived the ordeal. Me and him made a deal – he would go to retrieve the flash drive off from Jonghyun to get me out of this mess alive, and in return I’d give him my hidden savings, everything I still have.”

She looked away to wipe under her nose, “I knew not to trust him, but that big headed prick was the only chance of me getting out of here I had.” 

Her voice started to show a more bitter tone, “Although he probably already saw right through my bluff of ever paying him back right from the beginning.” 

Kyulkyung then looked straight at the two confused faces again, “He just went to claim the evidence all for himself to get rich and leave me in here to rot, didn’t he?” She chuckled in irony, Dongho supposed that was probably strongly the case and shyly nodded.

Kyulkyung was quick to set down the last bit of the puzzle for the two men, she explained, “When I bought the house it was actually signed under his name, that way nobody could suspect I would be hiding in here for this long.”

It had surely worked, because no one, not even police or Dongho, had imagined that she would be secretly living in a place like this. Staying in a shelter lavish with water and food for months.

She looked up at the ceiling as if she could see the sky through it, “I think we are still safe here, for now.” The warning ticked both sets of ears of the men. It looked like it could all still very much change.


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry hehe

Behind the tall glass towers of Seoul and past the grey worn down rows of apartment complexes further out, trapped inside of a room dressed in pitch black, a small figure cowered forgotten and pressed up against a wall.

Aaron stared into the blank space of a bedroom that had gone silent. His whole body had not moved, not even his eyes had lifted to look around anymore, they had long lost their shine.

The man was still in his police uniform which was splattered with dried blood, the ends of his sleeves ripped like they had been chewed on. This whole time his hands were shaking even though the rest of him had gone stiff.

However, he same blood on his clothes was not his own. Back at the pier warehouse, Aaron had killed all those people by himself, back there he had snapped and simply gunned down every one of them while they had been unarmed. 

He didn’t even fully realize why he had done it, in that moment his brain had been clouded by both grief and rage. The only thing he knew back then was revenge, yet in the end that still made him feel no better.

He had strictly told Mingi to not get involved, but that punk would just never listen. That day suspecting of him, his friend had secretly stalked him to work like he had already done once before. But it wasn’t any normal workday, Aaron was working with actual mobsters.

The young cop shook his head to disagree with himself. Mingi was simply worried for him, it wasn’t his fault for coming out to see him.

After Jonghyun had escaped, the mobsters did not check properly and instead captured Mingi who just happened to be hiding right outside in the distance to spy on Aaron who had gone inside the compound.

The cop had to admit that the two boys were pretty similar, long dark hair over their eyes, a clumsy and silly walk, and a weak, frail body that wouldn’t be able to fight back.

The cop found Mingi laying on the floor of the chamber that Jonghyun was meant to be kept in. His eyes were wide open facing the ceiling, and a gunshot wound had been placed in the middle of his chest. Red foam shined on the far corners of his mouth, signifying that the bullet had gone through his lungs. Mingi had passed away too quickly before Aaron could discover him.

Since then, something on the inside of Aaron broke, he turned into a machine rather than a man to go out and gun down every single person there not bothered to find out which one of the mobsters had actually pulled the trigger. It didn’t matter, to him they all deserved to die.

He now sat in the corner of their living room where frameless polaroid pictures of him and smiling Mingi decorated every wall. The cop could no longer deny the fact that his best friend was gone by now and that he could never have him back.

Everything he had done in his life was for the other man – leaving his choice school and future career in the states behind to take care of his friend and be there for him from day to day, working far from home just to provide enough money to pay off the mans debts.

Not knowing what to do, Aaron had just taken the body of his friend and bought him to the ER, by sitting him up in the stolen cop car beside him. He could barely hold the wheel from purposely crashing into something on his way, when his eyesight had been reduced to a blurry pink mess from crying.

He knew Mingi was already gone by then, but he still somewhat hoped that it all had been just a big misunderstanding. The cop blasted through the streets with sirens blaring far down the highways.

Upon his arrival at the hospital, Aaron had soon ditched the place before anyone could figure out that his Seoul district police badge was fraudulent. Thus leaving his friend laying down on a hospital stretcher motionless, pale. Aaron had left because he was scared of having the doctors on site tell him that his best friend was no longer breathing, Aaron didn’t want the confirmation that the guy he loved was truly gone and that their fought for Californian dream was no more.

He was over, the guy was left ruined and believed that he had nothing to live for if the only person who he had even been living for was just not there anymore. It had been close to over a day since the man had last eaten anything, or even simply moved from his current spot. The failed cop had given up to the point he was willing to accept staying there until his own heart would stop beating.

Aaron continued to stare into the dark, if not for the light of the moon that crossed over the room near his feet, and in that bright spot he visualized Mingi sitting there with those pretty doe eyes, the way he always did.

The projection of his friend made the saddest frown looking back at Aaron, and then he spoke in that calm voice that always made the rookie cop feel lighter.

“You can’t give up on me like this Aaron, you have to keep going!” Mingi spoke to the defeated man. “Please, get up.” The youngest begged him.

Aaron spoke for the first time, his throat hoarse and painfully dry, “But it is so hard when you are not here.” He winced.

Mingi forced a tiny smile, he was so troubled when Aaron was being like this, “But you are Aaron Kwak, so you can do it. I know you can!” He spoke to cheer the man up.

Aaron smiled back, and his eyes immediately started to fill with tears again, it was painful after they had been so painfully sore for all this time. “I miss you. I wish you were really here.” He spoke.

Mingi had gone silent, his eyes turned guilty to the floor in between him and his friend. Yet right then Aaron still felt hundred times more guilty than Mingi could ever feel.

The youngest would have never known how dangerous it was to follow Aaron, even the cop didn’t know what he was really setting himself up for either. Mingi was just worried for him, they were always worried and looking out for one another.

If only Aaron had not lied to him about the bad stuff he had been a part of from the start. Back then he thought that by telling Mingi a lie it would be better, and he wouldn’t have to worry.

Aarons wide smile turned painful every time he remembered that his friend will never be able to smile back at him again, “I loved you so-so much, did I even ever get to ever tell you that?”

Mingi thinned his lips into a wavy line before speaking soon after, “Aaron, you already know without me saying it how much I love you too.”

Aaron looked away to fight back a sob, but he could only successfully hold it this one time, turning back to the hallucination of his best friend to thank him, “I always feel better whenever I talk to you.”

Mingi happily gave him a nod, “You are tired, so you need to rest up now, go to sleep first Aaron.” He calmly instructed the other man who nodded right back at him, finally letting his face rest. 

Aaron had already shut his eyes and for the first time since leaving that warehouse he had gone to sleep.

 

Dongho and his ex were still in a tense stand off, both sitting wide awake past another hour all while Kyulkyung never dared to lower her weapon, having it pointed at the other man while he sat far across from her.

But still, she was sitting so casually with her legs crossed, resting on top of a low nightstand while still overseeing Jonghyuns ill bed. 

This whole time the muscles in Donghos legs had been spring loaded and ready to go be with the other man, but each time he tried to move an inch from his spot Kyulkyung flicked her short fingernail closer to pressing down on the trigger, scaring the man into submission.

After a long battle of stares, Dongho finally had enough, “You can’t keep pointing that gun at me the whole night. Just let me be next to him for fucks sake.”

Kyulkyung shook her head like it was out of the question, “No way, he needs to rest properly and you are only interrupting him.”

“You don’t understand.” He hissed under his breath, “He gets night terrors unless I sleep next to him.” Dongho desperately tried to explain. “He—he screams in his sleep.”

The woman swayed her chin to look down on Jonghyun, who was still breathing loudly in his sleep even after the fever had gone down. It didn’t look like a good sign, he needed some space around him to be able to breathe, thus Dongho should be banned from nearing him.

She spoke with a voice lacking any kindness, “Let him talk then, maybe then he will say where the flash drive is?”

“I already told you I don’t have it!” Dongho wined like he was tired of whining. He wished everyone around him just stopped talking about that fucking thing already.

However, it wasn’t a whining matter to Kyulkyung, it was life or death. So unless Jonghyun could remember where he had forgotten it once he’s nursed back to health, she always threatened to shoot the kid again herself.

After another long round of silence, Dongho saw her stare down at his friend for longer, her face losing all expression. “What do you intend to do with it once you find where it is?” He spoke with a different tone.

“The footage has to get out to the public.” She instructed, “News portals, journalists jumping at the chance, broadcast stations, anything.”

Kyulkyung looked straight forward at Dongho, closing her one eye to aim the gun in between his eyes for practice. “I want everyone to know what he did.” She sent chills down Donghos spine.

Right then, Kangs eyes had minimized to tiny dots, because for a second there he had thought that she would really shoot him there on the spot. But as soon as a visible gulp of worry slid down his throat, she erupted with laughter.

The only times where she wasn’t actively pointing her gun at the two of her captives was when she would purposely sit there fiddling with Donghos gun instead, unloading and loading it up again while her main gun sat ready strapped to a belt harness worn over her shirt.

She totally did it to always keep the pair on their toes. Jonghyun was restless, the sights of guns horrified him and seeing Kyulkyung playfully twirl bullets in between her fingers made him feel lightheaded. Plus, even without the gun he would still be terrified of her anyways, she was scary.

To think that the trio were once inseparable as each others best friends was unbelievable. The smiling and cheerful girl that the two men had once knew was not present, she was in fact a completely different person by now. A treacherous person who had betrayed and scammed them, the two men would never call their friend.

Bitter for what kind of person she had become, the shortest man didn’t even miss her one bit, to him the real Kyulkyung he had once loved had died a long time ago in that mud pile deep in a forest. 

Kyulkyungs gun fiddling came to a halt, she uncrossed her legs and stood from her seat very suddenly. With that Jonghyuns face instantly twisted into fear as soon as she spoke, “Kim Jonghyun should be stable now.”

Upon hearing the good news, Dongho leaped from his seat and landed on his knees next to his best friend. Kyulkyung let him near Jonghyun this time, he was too persistent with it anyways.

She continued, “I helped you both so now it would only be fair if you helped me, right?” She reminded them how only because of her the man was able to lower his temperature.

For a split second Dongho ignored her and reached to caress the boys chin tilting it up to better see his face, but Jonghyun quickly turned away even from Dongho.

“What do you want from us, we have told you everything.” Dongho hissed at the woman, blaming her for Jonghyun being in a condition like this. She sighed, “You still haven’t shown me inside your bags yet first.”

Dongho let out a sarcastic laugh, “Do you really think—?” His sentence was abruptly cut off as the barrel of the gun would press up against the middle of his forehead, right as he had turned around to face her again.

In horror, Jonghyun began to gasp for air, his eyes going wide from the fear of potentially losing the man he loved. 

“Quit complaining and just do it as told.” She warned Dongho, tired of him always making everything ten times more difficult unless he was reminded with a weapon.

“If you put away the gun first, sure.” Dongho became calm, carefully looking her straight in the eyes, “You are scaring the shit out of him.”

Only after groaning in agitation she put her weapon away to then watch as Dongho would go to unpack his bags. It was all they had bought in besides water and paper towels that they had in hand coming in.

“And no funny stuff.” She warned the two in case one of the bags contained a spare dagger or something. 

Dongho hissed in anger without turning back to see the woman who was constantly watching from behind. “You really don’t trust us, do you?” He questioned her.

“Nope!” She responded quickly ending her response with a closed mouth smile. Her eyes carefully peeked over his shoulder to see.

Everything he owned at this point was put on the floor, clothes, spare shoes, and already pre-emptied boxes of medicine. Dongho had significantly less stuff since he hadn’t prepared anything at all other than what he had been wearing.

One of the things Dongho took out first was the giant bear taking up half of the bag. He had entirely forgotten about the thing. Upon its discovery, Kang went to sit it happily right next to its friend Jonghyun, and went back digging deeper into the bag just to prove to Kyulkyung that he did not have her fucking flash drive.

Kyulkyung drifted her attention becoming more interested in the sad plush toy. Strangely, she felt like that particular teddy bear was somehow sitting in the back of her memory somewhere, but she couldn’t place her finger on it.

As she tilted her head to try to remember where she had seen it before, her eyes lit up in sudden realization that the toy belonged in the bed of Jonghyuns apartment back in his hometown.

She then harshly grabbed it away from the owner to observe it closer. In doubt she shifted her sights all over the suspicious looking toy, it had those big, cute buttons for its eyes. 

Could it be that this is the place where Nayoung had hid the flash drive before telling her girlfriend about it? But then again it would be foolish to assume Nayoung would have hid something so important along side Jonghyuns toys, yet the idea of it being possible had fired her up. She had to confirm it.

After having been turned away from the two men, Kyulkyung had at some point already grabbed a pair of scissors by Jonghyuns sick bed, ones that she had used earlier to replace his bloody bandages. 

It was far too late before Kang had noticed what on earth she was doing, he became enraged seeing the woman rip head of the toy apart like she was mad. These days that thing actually meant the world to Jonghyun, he carried it around with him everywhere.

As his first frightened reaction, Jonghyun had suddenly sat up in bed without thinking about his broken leg to instantly whimper at the sight of the teddy bear that had been so dear to him, his main toy of comfort, being turned inside out like a rag.

She had to be stopped, “What the fuck are you doing that’s—” Donghos yelling was abruptly silenced once he had stomped around the woman to see her now hold a flash drive in her gripped fist.

His face froze still mid expression some in-between anger and shock. It was not just some flash drive, it was the flash drive.

All this time, the device with the evidence had been trapped inside of that stupid, obvious bear and none of them had a clue. Why on earth did Nayoung even think to put it there, how. The three of them had the same set of questions, blaming themselves for not somehow figuring it out sooner.

Awkward silence made the air in the room go bad. Lowering his head in guilt, Jonghyun now recalled how months ago, one day he had found a random tear on the head of the bear, right behind its ear. Without noticing anything else as strange, he had preformed an ear saving surgery on his toy and patched up the same hole shut.

The trio figured that Nayoung must have previously ripped it open to put the flash drive inside. But even then Jonghyun still couldn’t remember the day that the two women had ever being inside of his home. Maybe that’s why he had never suspected a thing before.

Impressed that the evidence actually existed, Dongho was still frozen looking at it. Kyulkyung totally ignored him from there and suddenly began to storm around the room like there was a fire. She was ready to leave the hideout and use the evidence.

“What are you doing?” He jolted and stood in her way, believing that they should just all talk it out first. It probably wasn’t even safe to leave the house for any of them yet after such a brief time of hiding.

“Hang on a sec!” He pleaded.

Kyulkyung disagreed, “I’ve waited for long enough Kang Dongho.” The woman cursed as she then brushed past his shoulder to get to her boots like she was going to jump out the door the next second. This woman was acting without a fear.

“But its dangerous!” He stuttered, “Are you—going to spread it to the news, just like that?” She acted surprised that Kang hadn’t yet realized it was their only option at the moment, and the sooner its done the better.

“Do you think he will be able to wait?” She pointed her chin behind him where Jonghyun laid unable to move aside from only scrolling his eyes around the room whenever the next wave of pain hit.

The nurse had previously warned the two such nasty things that could still happen to Jonghyun if he stayed here – possible infection, spread of dead skin tissue, a blood clot forming in his leg that could travel up to his brain. 

Just thinking about all those normally easily preventable and treatable at the hospital things happening to the poor guy made Dongho change his mind about getting out of here sooner.

“Then, I’ll do it.” He offered, his face hanging still for her to explain her plan to him so he could fulfil it himself. But Kyulkyung wasn’t going to tell him jack shit, that wasn’t her intention.

“I’m grown Dongho, I can take care of it all by myself.” She spoke so mysteriously, not wanting to reveal exactly how she would pull off reproducing and submitting all evidence to multiple parties. Dongho was literally left in the dark.

He yanked her back by the arm when she attempted to leave, which instead of angering Kyulkyung actually impressed her. The jerk was getting a little brave trying to speak up to her as if he was anything than just a mere inconvenience.

“It’s not safe, I can do it for you.” He began begging to be put in her place, genuinely believing he could do a much better job of it.

Kyulkyung began to laugh at him, speaking in a mean way just so Jonghyun could hear it from far away too, “Is it because you are afraid to lose me again?” She began teasing.

Dongho flashed his teeth wanting to bite, his grip finally letting go of his ex’s arm, “After what you done to us, to Jonghyun, I hope they still lock you up behind bars for a very – very long time.” 

He threatened her knowing that she would have to stand trial for blackmailing the murderer instead of reporting the evidence to the police to give justice to the real murder victim.

She chuckled reminding him of his own crimes, “Well then, you better hope that Hwang didn’t report you for putting a bullet in him, otherwise you’re going to be going where I am going.”


	27. Chapter 27

Seoul was hidden behind a fog of rain and not just the typical morning shower, the wind was howling and the streets had flooded. A rainstorm was taking over the city, it’s dark clouds seemingly stretched the tiresome last night even longer.

Not expecting this bad of a weather the city buses still had to cruise the flushed streets without a rest, while angry rain and stormy winds banged on their windows from outside. Not many people filled the seats today, the driver muted the outside noise by listening to the loud humming voices of the radio.

Officer Kwak occupied one of the furthest seats, carefully tuning into the very same radio broadcast that had been going on all morning. Multiple bodies of had been found massacred in a secluded warehouse of a pier, no suspects or cause could be named by the police investigation at the time.

Hearing the accurate description of his own crime, Aaron lowered the cap over his eyes. He now wore unsuspicious civilian clothing hoping not to immediately get recognized just in case the cops had already linked the body bought by him to the hospital on the same night, as the bodies found in that emptied warehouse.

The bus came to a halt and the doors drew open to release Aaron at a secluded single bench bus station. He was the only one stepping out in middle of the rain so far from the heart of the city. 

Just as he had turned the corner to pass the driver, the man at the wheel called him back, “Hey?” His voice sounded deep and blocked by a caught.

Aaron didn’t instantly respond, instead of turning around to face the driver he only looked with his eyes. A fabric facemask was guarding his lower face from being recognized, all because the ex cop feared getting caught this soon already.

“You sure you want to get off? The buses might stop coming later on, so you might get stranded out here.” The guy leaned out of his seat to kindly warn the passenger

Aaron didn’t want to use his voice to respond, but the mans worried stare kept waiting on him. The young man spoke in a voice that was normally not as deep, “I’ll be fine, sir.”

“Alright then.” The driver coldly shrugged, not wanting to ever imagine himself going out in the wet weather like this one. 

“This darn weather.” The driver cussed before driving off.

 

Thunder sounded off somewhere south on the sky, but inside the small attic room of Kyulkyungs house it sounded right overhead.

With a loud gasp Jonghyun immediately shot awake to press himself up against Dongho for safety, when mistaking the hallow sound for a gunshot. He was traumatized.

Dongho hugged him right back, burying his nose in Jonghyuns hair to calm him, rocking and hushing the guy back to sleep despite his scared whines and loud breaths.

Throughout all of this Jonghyun had been left totally scarred not just physically, but mentally, he was a paranoid mess now. So it pained Dongho to know that now he had to act like bravest one of the two, even though he was even more useless.

The two men were left all alone by now, the only way of contacting Kyulkyung they had was by using the burner phone she had left them with before leaving with the evidence. In the end Dongho couldn’t convince the woman to go in her place. As well as, being terrified of her, Jonghyun wouldn’t agree to being left locked inside of a room with her. Kang had to give up and stay.

Regardless, they hoped that it would all be over soon anyways, if only they would just give Kyulkyung some time to fix what she had broken, then the two men could be free again. 

Jonghyun could go back to being his cheerful, loud and bubbly self he was exactly one year ago before all of this had started. Dongho could start rebuilding his life the way it was, they way it should have always been – by Jonghyuns side.

This big wait right now was the most insufferable part of this though, especially since Kyulkyung had left them no clue as to what were they meant to expect afterwards. Dongho decided to make an exception and trust her just this one time. When before leaving she told him not to dial her burner phone unless it was an absolute emergency, he listened.

Long minutes passed since and the lightning was still not over. Every time it struck somewhere Jonghyuns shoulders would wince up as a reaction, and then he would cry out since slight movement like that would make his injuries sting like mad. It broke Donghos heart to little bits each time.

“You want to eat something?” Dongho decided to brighten up the mood. His voice was little, a smile formed at the end.

He began presenting his friend with some canned food. The tallest boy had tried it before, but it tasted too dull and disgusting for him, he really despised anything that came out of a can. Donghos shitty home made cooking and then the watery hospital soup had been a luxury while he still had those.

The shaking of the head was quick, Dongho had already predicted that the guy would say no, but yet he tried to keep the same conversation going. “Then maybe, do you need something else? For your leg? Go to the bathroom?” He worried.

“No.” Jonghyuns voice was weak, he hugged his face into the other mans chest in protest, nuzzling against him like a cat. Dongho held his position, that gesture had somehow cleared up all of his stress like a spell.

It couldn’t be made more clear that Jonghyun only needed his best friend by his side, his boyfriend, or whatever that stupid ring on his finger meant. Dongho felt moved, his body shifted slowly and with extra care to pull Jonghyun off from him. He had decided that right now, more than anything, Dongho wanted to see the view of Jonghyuns pretty dark eyes.

The shortest found itself cupping Jonghyuns warm cheek while all he did was just affectionately stare back at the guy. Jonghyun wanted to touch him too, but one side of Donghos face was still slightly misshapen, more swollen than the other one, due to his own injuries suffered back at that place. The eye on the same side was more irritated and red too, often closing twice as much as his healthier one. It looked painful, Jonghyun was afraid of hurting the man by accident.

“You are staring.” Dongho rarely ever became shy these days, but knowing that his whole face was a mess made him twice as insecure. 

A small giggle came from his friends pale lips, “Ah, sorry.” Jonghyun couldn’t help it, but at least Dongho was glad that the guy got a laugh out of it.

Another lightning strike happened, but Jonghyun didn’t jump as much this time while Dongho was holding his head in place by the cheek. The two were still gazing at one another.

Jonghyun was a little embarrassed in front of his friend for being such a scaredy-cat being afraid of the thunder. At one point it was the other way around, back when Kang used to worry and lose his head about even the smallest things when they were younger.

The tall male suddenly distracted himself by making a rather gross revelation to the other, “It’s been so long since I’ve actually worn something clean. I literally haven’t changed my underwear in almost a week.”

“Dude, same here.” Dongho was just now only starting to feel alone on his own. The guy had by now removed his hand from his friend to instead itch his own chin instead, feeling something rough poke under his fingernails.

The two men were glad that Kyulkyung wasn’t still here to hear them say that. Like that, together they could smile everything away for a while, but yet the bad thoughts of what they actually stood up against right nkw kept coming back to end their happy moments.

Overtime, Jonghyun started to let the worry come back to him, “Kyulkyung still hasn’t given us a call yet?” He spoke after minutes of them waiting for the storm to end.

Dongho realized that and he was just as nervous as his friend about it, “Its going to be fine, I think.” He gave a nod, “She is probably just trying to get through the storm. It will all go well.” 

The man tried speaking as if he actually had a clue, because to be honest, he still doubted Kyulkyung as someone that they should trust their lives upon. His reassuring words surely had came of pure heart, yet they raised even more panic in Jonghyun.

“But what if it doesn’t go well? What if she has already gotten caught and we just don’t know it yet?” Jonghyun suddenly had lost his voice, Dongho was patient to wait it out. 

“If she gets caught, do you think she will be forced to tell your brother in law that we are here?” The boy sulked.

Dongho shrugged, looking away at the slanted attic ceiling, “If she ever gets tortured as much as we did, she might.” He didn’t shy away from telling Jonghyun the truth this time.

The tallest had expected for there to be a follow up to Donghos worrying words, but the ling wait made him ask ahead anyways, “And if she does?”

“Then I guess this would be our last night together.” Dongho tried to joke, but even then it sounded too close to the truth to ever be funny.

Their exchange was made awkward, a long silence ensued in between the two where neither of them wanted to speak or mention the big possibility of death right now.

Jonghyun had bitten his lower lip, his eyes pointing up at his friend from behind the veil of his own bangs that had by now grown all sticky and unpleasant, at least Dongho somehow didn’t notice.

Then out of all of a sudden, completely unprompted, Jonghyun would push his friend from leaning on the back of his elbows to being pressed flat down on the creaky mattress under his weight, trapping him into a violent hug.

A full second had gone missing from Donghos memory while in flight, he had became wide eyed at the sight of the other man laying on top of him, their noses only a molecule away from touching.

Donghos first thought in a puzzling situation like this was rather silly, “Jonghyun wait, your leg!” He warned his friend who had not even thought about it yet, not long before erupting into cusses and swears.

Jonghyun had been hopped on some mad pain killers earlier, perhaps now they were actually starting to kick in the way they should, everything felt lighter and sorta numb. But perhaps the pain didn’t go away because of that, maybe it was all due the weird rush in his heart.

“It’s fine!” Jonghyun clarified that he wasn’t putting pressure on his bad leg or anything. While Dongho had quickly become stuck blinking his clueless eyes at his friend. Overtime his vision slowly grew used to the other this up close. He liked being like this with him.

Dongho moved his chin up to make a connection, his lips were quickly warm on Jonghyuns. It wasn’t long before they had parted for him and the two had slipped into a slow, enduring kiss. When they later drove apart, it felt like a crowd of mist escaped from both of their mouths at once, melting into the air with their held breaths.

Dongho saw Jonghyuns eyes flicker from confusion to embarrassment, and naturally he decided to tease the guy more about it then. “So that just happened?” He chuckled, prompting Jonghyun to briefly join his laugh, “Yeah it did.” 

They haven’t had the chance to spend time together like this, as things just always kept getting in the way, even right now it definitely didn’t seem like the right time. Yet with begging eyes, Dongho offered to continue.

Jonghyun pushed himself forwards into another hug, his chin arched high and far to meet with his friends face. But just as suddenly he had already retreated right after feeling something foreign in his throat, seconds later he started to cough. 

“Uh, it’s okay, lets just hug later.” Dongho made a grim promise for their unsure future. Jonghyun nodded.

Before the mood was about to drop to being sad again, the phone Kyulkyung had assigned to the two had began to frantically ring. Finally expecting an update, Dongho rushed to put it on speaker, forgetting about everything else.

Dongho spoke first, “What the fuck took you so long—?” He yelled over the phone just as Kyulkyung cut in to speak over him in a quick voice.

“Kang, run.” She instructed, “As far as you can, that’s going to be my best advice for you now.”

Dongho turned to Jonghyun in shock, “What do you mean run? What about the evidence, did it not go through?” He panicked.

The woman sighed over the phone, it sounded like she was annoyed, “Forget about the evidence, I had to pay the guy off to get myself out of this mess alive.”

Jonghyun, nor Dongho could understand what this really meant at first, “You?—you sold the evidence back to that crook?” The realization came soon.

Out of the kindness of her heart she had decided to let the two men know that they were on their way of getting slain for being witnesses now, that was the least help she could give to the two men, she thought.

“It was the only way I could ever stay get out of this by not getting locked up or dying in one way or another, you and I both knew this.” She dared to mock him like it was his fault for ever trusting her again.

“Get out of this?” Jonghyun suddenly cut into the conversation, the woman on the line had not expected to even hear his voice present in the argument.

“What about your friend? That man got her killed, are you seriously going to let her death be in vain?” He yelled at her, hardly believing how the hell could this woman be so heartless. He thought she had cared for her girlfriend, this made no sense.

Yet Kyulkyung did care, the fact that Jonghyun was making the assuming that she did not while he knew absolutely nothing made her livid. This prompted her to break and snap back at him.

“The guy has connections, both the police and out-laws are working for him. So at any time, I could still end up in a ditch. If I die as well, then what good would that do?” 

She enforced, every one of her words coming out stronger than the last, “In the end, me and Nayoung both wished for at least one of us to make it out.”

There was then a pause, the two men listening could tell she was using it to sigh in the background again. Dongho became lightheaded, his body had frozen still, “You can’t be serious.”

The two had ultimately been left betrayed yet again, Kyulkyung abandoning her old friends to their own fate as Donghos brother in law would now probably do everything to tie up loose ends and get rid of any remaining witnesses.

She spoke for the last time before hanging up, “So if you truly value your lives, then please go and get out of there now.”

The two fell to sit down in defeat ultimately realizing they had been used. “What do we do now?” Dongho pulled his hands away from his face in desperation.

Jonghyun was silent, stuck in a scared thought without uttering a word. However, if what Kyulkyung had warned them of was true then they had no room to just sit here and ponder like this.

Dongho found the gun that had been left behind, the same one that once belonged to the cop. He quickly grabbed it deciding maybe it should be enough to protect themselves if necessary, despite the fact that Kang had never fired an actual round of an arcade shooting range.

Jonghyun reached out his hand to stop Dongho from taking the gun, to him it already seemed like a waste of effort. He slowly moved his hand overs Donghos, their promise rings stacking on top of one another, to calm him from the thoughts of using a gun.

There was no point of doing that, they couldn’t fight back what seemed like a resourceful army with just a single gun. Both of them knew that in this case, this might really be it for them, they were done for. The police or the mob could come to torture them again and certainly neither of them wanted to live through it twice.

Dongho had an idea, not a very bright one and definitely one he would normally never present. The man turned to face Jonghyun, holding the weapon in his lap between them. He unloaded the clip and there weren’t even that many bullets left, but there were enough for just the two of them. 

Jonghyun glared at Dongho in disgust and disbelief, “Dongho—” He spoke in a voice that broke the other mans heart. 

Dongho didn’t like to think of it either, his eyes gradually turned more red and bloodshot as he carefully spoke next, “We don’t know what’s out there, so we can’t just keep running like Kyulkyung told us. If people are already after us at one point we will eventually get caught, its only a matter of time.” 

Jonghyun shook his head, “Wait, before you do anything stupid, I need to tell you something first,” He turned behind himself as to look for something, “Kang, where did you put my old clothes?”

“Huh?” Dongho acted confused, so Jonghyun frantically tried to elaborate, “My old pants, the ones you had to scissor apart to treat my leg.”

“But they are just rags now?” Dongho didn’t understand, scratching his head to himself. “Bring those to me.” Jonghyun ordered.

Understanding just by looking at Jonghyuns face that whatever was going on, it was important, the short man started to rush. He went to dig through the trash of bloody bandages and emptied medicine jars at the other end of the room to which Jonghyun couldn’t walk on his own.

The pants had been turned to shreds, but for some reason the tallest still wanted them, and when Dongho bought them over, he literally grabbed them out of his hands. 

Jonghyun panicked his hand inside one of the shut pockets and to Donghos surprise revealed something he didn’t expect – another flash drive. 

An invisible question mark had formed above him as he now stared down at the device in his friends small palm. 

Jonghyun was embarrassed to reveal his lie. The same evidence, it was hidden in here. “How? What?” Dongho had to shake his head like a dog trying to get the wet out of his ears to believe it.

Jonghyun then told the man how while laid down in the hospital bed, he had soon noticed something weird about his teddy bear. After all he kept it with him every day, so it was bound to be discovered that way soon enough. Whenever the patient hugged it tightly, he could feel something hard on the inside of it.

Confused, he tried to shake it to his ear, but couldn’t really hear anything moving or rattling inside as the stuffing muffled all movement. Clearly remembering there not being anything inside his most prized bear before, he took an interest at the hole that he had previously patched up behind the ear of same toy.

It wasn’t until much later, when he had already pulled out the threads that held the toys wound shut, and carefully poked around the inside its head to soon find the random flash drive hidden inside.

Jonghyuns mind had frozen on the spot, the look of terror on his face was in fact so obvious that the other patients he shared the room with would stare in suspicion. He quickly drew the flash drive away into the sheets and out of the sight.

It was the thing Kyulkyung had wanted to give to him before being murdered, it definitely had to be. Or else how could a thing like this could have ended up inside of his toy that had been locked in his old apartment out of nowhere. 

Obviously, he had no idea what it was, but the fact that it was hidden so well probably meant that it was not meant to be found by anyone but him. Yet now Jonghyun was scared of finding something like this he maybe shouldn’t have. It probably served of great importance and was dangerous to hold.

Jonghyun decided to keep it safe until he would be able to make a backup of the flash drive just in case, while hiding the original back where he had first found it to pretend he had never seen it if anyone ever came to ask.

He thought about telling Dongho about it first, but the guy was quite brash, he wouldn’t think about going with the safe route of making a copy and putting the original back. The guy would be mad to find out what was on it first and foremost above all else.

However, to copy the files first would require Jonghyun to leave the hospital by himself to buy a spare storage device, which he couldn’t do. Plus, he didn’t have access to the hospital internet to save a backup digitally either. 

The tallest had the wit to come up with a different plan, of him asking the younger patients in the hospital to just secretly trade him a flash drive in exchange for as many claw machine toys as he could pull out. He considered himself a genius for it.

It took less than a day for the little rascals to agree and give him what he needed in order to copy the puzzling files Kyulkyung had left him with.

Jonghyun stood outside a private office of a doctor, biting his thumb in worry and trying not to be caught loitering around the wrong floor of the building while dressed in hospital pyjamas, that had left his knees out in the cold and faked toes nervously curling up against the floor.

The doctor left his room as expected, not bothering to lock it before leaving for lunch time. Jonghyun hid behind a wall from being seen and then tiptoed his way inside the office to the desk computer. He had to be absolutely quick about this.

Jonghyun traded the USBs to the computer to copy and paste the contents from one to the other. And while he still had a little bit of time, out of pure curiosity, he quickly double clicked to see what the contents of the storage drive were.

Jonghyun had only seen those contents for a split second, but he was left horrified. Upon the sight of a dead body displayed across the whole screen of the monitor, he instantly unplugged both flash drives. He believed that he really shouldn’t have seen that, whatever that was. 

Jonghyun cleaned traces of him ever using the doctors computer and quickly headed back to patch up his bear and hide the spare drive amongst his own stuff, before Minhyun would pay him a surprise visit later that same day.

Thus, secretly Jonghyun had known about the evidence all along. The reason why he had hid his find for this long, was because since they had met Kyulkyung again, he could simply not trust her anymore. Even more so after all that she had done.

Dongho cupped Jonghyuns hands that trembled to hold the evidence, suddenly happily laughing in irony, because it was still all useless now. They had no idea what they could even do with it.

There was no way they could leave the house while both the police and probably the vengeful mob are currently out to get them, and to also just trust the drive to a random person working at a desk of some broadcast station. Given that they would even be able to reach that far, since Jonghyun couldn’t even move.

The boy was already gravely ill, they had no idea of knowing how badly Jonghyun was really being affected by his injuries, therefore transporting him could prove deadly. So it all looked grim, almost as if this was surely the end of their run.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> anyone know that super junior song that goes sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry so

The angry roars of the thunder and storm would not cease to frighten the two men hidden away in their hideout. Another hour of both rain and thunder had already passed and in the meanwhile, Dongho had decided to for some reason quickly pen a note explaining everything that had happened to them. Just in case someone was indeed about to come to murder them, he wrote it in hopes that someone with kinder intentions would find it and know the truth.

Suddenly Donghos pen made a swirl on the paper reacting to another loud a crashing sound, but this time it sounded like this time it wasn’t just lightning – it had come from the downstairs.

In full fear, Dongho turned to Jonghyun gesturing him to stay quiet and stay put until it would go away by itself as long as they wouldn’t make themselves known. But the noises would not go away as hoped for. There was a constant, loud thud noise one after another. Like someone was hitting a large hammer against a wall.

The two men feared that someone bad had already come to finish them off, or take the two boys captive again and do who knows what next. Jonghyun gripped into Donghos shirt, wincing and begging to have the other man not move an inch.

Kang definitely wasn’t going to, in fact he was even more afraid in this situation than his counterpart, his heart was almost ready to leap out of his throat. He just hugged the man and shut his eyes to ignore the intruders, yet in the black darkness those scary sounds only sounded louder.

The repeated noises were sounding repetitive enough that they soon started to calm down, believing that maybe no one was breaking in and perhaps it was only the wind banging onto a loose door somewhere in the house.

That theory existed until an even louder noise that had sounded like a crash happened downstairs. Something inside of the house had now broken, it was evident do assume that perhaps an actual intruder could actually be inside, free to rein terror once the two men were found.

Their fear to be found was now bigger due to the previously locked away path to being left unlocked. Kyulkyung had taken the key to ensure they would run instead of just sitting ducks and lose their life by doing so. Yet the two men did not take her advice, they were too scared to leave anymore.

“I’ll go check.” Dongho suddenly showed some courage. “No, you can’t go!” Jonghyun immediately whispered back at him.

“It could have been just have been the wind knocking a window out?” Dongho suggested, trying to convince both Jonghyun and himself to stay brave. “Then don’t go!” The other cried back at him.

Their frightened sights stared at that hatch on the floor, their one way out – if they ever stepped out that door they would risk being recaptured, and because now that Kyulkyung had betrayed them, it was just a matter of time before someone could come here to get them.

Dongho started to frantically turn and twist his hips in his sitting spot trying to find something heavy in the room that they could lift over the attic door to barricade it. Jonghyun sat and watched his friend who was just desperately trying to figure ways to lengthen their lives in pity.

“It’s no use dude.” Jonghyun spoke to the other. “We can’t just sit and do nothing?” Dongho responded, noticing that Jonghyuns eyes were already set for the loaded gun laying idle in the middle.

“Indeed.” Jonghyun implied that maybe they should give up and might as well end it all sooner already than just wait for it.

At first Dongho was mad that the jerk would even consider something like that, but then he quickly changed his face and took the same idea from him. He had to hold his breath as his brain raced to consider it, his eyes gradually focused on Jonghyun. 

The guy was looking weaker and weaker with every passing hour, Jonghyun was already out of breath even though he had done nothing but sit in one spot with his leg up. The ill man was trying to breathe so loudly that Dongho could hear it from a distance. This meant that if Jonghyun didn’t get to hospital soon to get air, then he would probably not make it for too long. However, Dongho couldn’t take him there no matter what in fear of the cops – there was nothing that he could do about it.

Troubled, Dongho slowly sat down in front of the gun, meeting the same stare Jonghyun wore, the same grim and defeated expression. The other man began to fit it into his palm and his own hands instantly trembled holding the heavy metal.

“Are you for real going to—do that?” Dongho asked the other man the big question. Jonghyun panicked and his voice shot up high, “We don’t have much of a choice, do we?”

There was a gap of silence in between, the tallest relaxed his lungs after the yell, breathing out harder than he probably should, while Dongho had lowered his head in thought.

“Guess not.” Dongho had to admit, a small chuckle broke past his bruised lips. It was all decided then. “Lets get it over with then?” He spoke up, giving his best friend a dumb, corny smile.

Jonghyun grinned back, he didn’t even know while he was smiling so hard in a situation like this. Dongho was willing to die for him, with him, instead of abandoning him and running far-far away.

“Seriously?” Jonghyuns raised brow surprised the other, Dongho shrunk his head into own shoulders and nodded in confirmation. 

Of course Kang wouldn’t just leave Jonghyun helpless and dying on the floor of the attic, they both had the same fate anyways, running was pointless.

“But,” Jonghyun looked back at the gun, their only way out of this whole mess, and then back at his best friend. “Do we have to take turns using it?” He asked.

Jonghyun didn’t particularly like the idea of one of them having to watch the other die by the bullet first. “We can’t just line up our heads and fire, idiot.” Dongho mocked him.

Jonghyun gave himself time to think of something else, the guy was full of wit, already coming up with his next idea. Then Dongho helped him reach for whatever Jonghyun was going for. 

From the other side of their beds, it turned out to be a medicine box full of pill bottles that Kyulkyung had used to treat them. Jonghyun went over them, some were unmarked and some of them came with a list of warnings long enough to label them as poison. So that’s exactly what he handed to Dongho, medicine that would likely kill them if taken without the listed precautions.

Jonghyun had no clue what this was even for, but he figured that if they took enough of these to go over the normal dosage, then they would die either way and it would be less gruesome and bloody to die this way. The guy had even come close to dying by taking too much medicine once before on accident, so how hard could it be if done on purpose.

The two men agreed that this way they could die together instead of one by one and accepted this as the best outcome. The next minute they were already down and facing one another, with some poured in their little, trembling clutched hands. The plan was to lay down and close their eyes, and if they woke back up and were still alive, they could just take some more to finish the job.

The two men were already prepared, sitting close with their faces a moment away from touching, weirdly they were all smiles through the tears though. Jonghyun giggled in both misery and relief, Dongho did the same back to him.

The water to help wash everything down drew trembling circles inside the cup, and only after their eyes had met in confirmation first, the two put their filled hands to their mouths and sank the pills down with water.

The fear of what the two had really done quickly set in only after, when Dongho realized that he really did not wish to die, but Jonghyun was the one to calm him. The short man held back the sudden wish to run to the bathroom and gag, because if Jonghyun died instead, then he didn’t want to imagine himself living without him, it wouldn’t be fair.

There was no way back now, so the two men laid down in the bed together, facing one another waiting to drift off into sleep.

Seemingly the poison was doing its thing, as soon after they both were starting to gradually feel more drowsy and they had lost the sense of fear that they had before. Words became a tired and slurred mess whenever on of them tried to speak, their lips would only form syllables out of breaths. They had fallen fell into this weird state of calmness, like nothing even mattered anymore.

Jonghyun saw that his friend had gone relaxed, laying calmly next to him and waiting. “Dongho,” He spoke in a small dreamy voice.

“Yeah?” The other responded casually, opening his eyes to the pretty boy facing him. Jonghyun was hesitant to speak, “I am so glad that I had the chance to meet you again.” His hand reached to brush his friends hair.

Jonghyun was smiling, his eyes filling with tears of joy. Dongho smiled back just as wide, “If I had never gone searching for that woman, then I probably wouldn’t be here right now – but then I also would have never found you, and never known the truth.”

He smiled bigger, more painful, “So I am thankful for falling in love with you, jerk.” Jonghyun was relieved to hear that his friend didn’t regret him. “I just wish we had more time together.” The tallest admitted.

Dongho agreed, but all of a sudden he had already gotten too tired to speak, his eyes shifted to become closed, as Jonghyun watched while knowing that they would never open again.

“I love you. I always love you.” The tall boy spoke for the final time, before he voluntarily had made his eyes shut too.

 

Kyulkyung waited in a hallway of a modern high-rise, the window at the very end only showed bright white, she sat on a comfy couch pressed up against a wall. The woman acted relaxed, sitting with legs crossed while constantly taking a look at her poor chipped nails that haven’t been taken care of in so long.

Kyulkyung even chewed on some gum she had casually picked up on her way here. Her boots leaking with wet from the rain after a long walk across the town.

A body guard waited next to her guarding a door until Kyulkyung would be allowed to enter. The same young man judged her leaking wet umbrella that had been placed spread out on the floor beside her seat, and she judged him right back. A nasty witch stare appeared on her face, casting a literal shadow over her eyes, until he glanced away.

Kyulkyung couldn’t wait for it all to finally be over, right after this part she would then travel to an airport, and from there, with her new money, go straight to some luxury hotel where she could finally lay in clean and warm sheets for the first time after all this.

The wait was up and the office door had opened. She smirked with a pleased smile quickly hopping to stand on her feet to put an end to this for once and for all. Behind that door was an office belonging to the man who was responsible for all of this. 

This was a large decorated space, living flowers hugged the long room from both sides leading up straight to a giant desk waiting at the deep end of the same room. Behind it stood a giant wall mounted police emblem, and along side it were flag poles symbols representing the country. 

In front of that desk were some organised couches for formal meetings like this, facing a coffee table in the exact middle. That’s where the scum police man had expected for her to sit.

She ignored the offer instead choosing to stand just so she could get out of here quicker once it’s done. The guy waiting to meet her didn’t look welcoming at all, but Kyulkyung had already gotten used to seeing that nasty mug by now.

It somehow hurt a little more when looking at him now. Kyulkyung wanted to strangle him on the spot for being responsible for Nayoungs demise, but she couldn’t do that now, she promised herself not to.

The man didn’t even face her, busy with continuously gazing out his office window. One long stretch of glass sliced off the whole building, showing a wide view of the cities largest river surrounded by metropolitan high rise buildings, industrial fog and the heavy rainfall.

“Your gun.” One of the men dressed in a sleek black suit suddenly spoke to her, not letting her go any further into the room unless she would give it up. 

The woman rolled her eyes and pulled it out from the inside of her jacket, how did these dense bastards even guess that she had one on her, Kyulkyung thought to herself.

The main man slowly drank from his cup, still looking at the far outside with grim eyes. “Hand in the evidence.” He spoke calm and not particularly in any kind of a rush.

The woman groaned, pulling a flash drive out of her pocket and hanged it in the air for one of the mans lapdog body guards to catch it, as she let the literal key to her freedom fall loose from her fingertips into their clumsy palms.

The body guard hurried, almost ran to the computer to review it’s files. Kyulkyung turned her head just as a laser projector screened an image of the computer screen onto a wall, so that everyone could go over the evidence together.

Meanwhile while everything was being set up, the man had now turned around standing like a tall and menacing shadow in front of the bright window.

“Where have you been hiding this whole time?” He curiously asked her, he had already predicted that she had probably ended up being alive, like a cockroach unable to kill, she had just been hiding somewhere this whole time. 

Even after officially declaring her as dead, the guy still had spent ages looking for her to make sure she would stay actually in the ground the next time that chance arises, before she had the chance to somehow find a way to flee the country and expose him later.

He wanted to find out where she had been hiding to go through her house and discover if by any means she could have perhaps made another back up copy. Kyulkyung wasn’t a fool, she already knew he would raid her hideout right after this, but unfortunately Dongho and Jonghyun, the two witnesses, were there.

The two men should be gone from there by now, but Kyulkyung decided not to reveal her secret location anyways to give them more time to flee. Although after that, those two guys would be absolutely on their own.

Kyulkyung made a mocking smirk, “Do you not trust me sir? I would not betray our deal like that.”

The man could very well read something hidden in her confident voice, under that boastful laugh hid some kind of uncertainty. Kyulkyung was trying to cover something up.

The true answer was left ambiguously hanging in the air. Not wanting for more problems to arise, the man made note to himself to just find out later on his own. Then everyone turned to look at the wall projection, even the bodyguards would be crossing their hands over their stomach and standing chins tall. 

However to everyone’s surprise, upon actually opening the drive it was empty and clean. The drive held on data on it – it had been completely wiped.

Kyulkyung didn’t process it instantly, she only realized how she was now so absolutely screwed, as soon as the man began to speak in anger, “Is this some kind of a joke to you?” He grunt.

In her head, Kyulkyung instantly blamed the two men. Jonghyun had to have done something to it, he must have known. 

Indeed, while in hurry to copy the files on a hospital computer to another backup device, Jonghyun had most likely somehow accidentally wiped the other drive empty without even noticing.

She turned to the man and began to speak in her own defence, “I—” The horrified woman was promptly cut off before any voice could pass her confused lips.

The man hissed, his exhale was loud and could be easily mistaken for a roar of thunder breaking out outside the building in the background. 

“Forget about the deal.” He raised his wrist at the guards to begin to corner the woman, denying her from leaving through that door again.

“Wait! This isn’t my fault.” She argued, watching as two guards slowly caved in from both left and right.

The man twitched his bushy eyebrow in agitation, to his this was nothing more than yet another annoying inconvenience put in his way. He returned to both his mug and the same old window view, speaking to himself, “The evidence still has to be out there somewhere then.”

“What was that sir?” One of the spare bodyguards bowed slightly when speaking to his boss. The man flinched around for a scary order, “Just get her out of my sight already.”

The crooked police man no longer really needed her, aside from needing her dead. Truth be told, from the very beginning he had never intended for her to come out of this building alive.

“Hang on now. I can still somehow fix this probably.” She promised, her eyes wide. However the bodyguards did not give her time. In her final moments, she realized that maybe she won’t get to lay in those new, warm sheets after all.

 

A shadow walked through the streets, unbothered by any rain and the cold. What was left of Aaron was just an empty husk of his former self after the unfair death of his beloved. Almost like he was programmed to, the man walked only to complete a task.

To repay for failing as a protector of the law and getting his friend killed, the ex cop wished to find a way to redeem himself and this was his one chance to, since if he didn’t do anything at all during this chance, he would die or go to prison either way.

Aaron regretted his other wrongdoings, he now vividly remembered the face of his supposed suspect – Kang Donghos, who was trapped inside that torture chamber all beaten up and helpless. He remembered about his childhood schoolmate Jonghyun, who had been mercilessly shot right before the eyes of his own friend. Indirectly, he had caused for that to happen to the pair.

Those two men were going to get assassinated now, Aaron was sure of it since he had overheard the bosses plan for them – they were being hunted, so that the crimes of some man in a suit high up could not be revealed.

Aaron promised to give up his life to protect them, because they were the only ones who could have possibly known the name of the person who had done all this. All Aaron needed was his gun back and he could lead them two to safety. Or better yet, help them unveil their secrets of that bastard who had tricked Aaron to commit all of these crimes.

The abandoned house outside of the city was the only place that the cop could imagine them hiding, after all he had stalked them enough to know exactly all the places they could try to run off to. He hoped that they would accept his help despite everything he has done.

Aaron walked towards the right street number up against the harsh rain, and soon he had instantly spotted a lone car badly parked nearby. The same one he had seen once before at that warehouse. He figured, they had probably stolen it to drive out here, so that definitely confirmed that they had to indeed be here.

Aaron rushed towards the house down the block, hoping that he wasn’t already too late before anyone else could find them hiding in there.

The front door was obviously locked now. Aaron looked for other point of entry, before luckily enough finding a broken, loose window shutter clapping open and closed in the wind. 

With each slam little pieces of glass broke and fell, Aaron peered inside and saw the window already shattered against the strength of the wind – this is what had kept making that constant banging noise.

A stray shard of glass sliced the arm as he entered, he held his hiss to enter more quietly, and although his arm was bleeding, he didn’t even spare time to look at it.

In this past day, Aaron hadn’t even had the time to even look at himself in the mirror properly yet. Once inside and away from the harsh rain, his form finally visualized inside of the dark living room.

The mans eyes were tortured and red, the skin around them gone sore and dry from rubbing. He was wearing a rain soaked hoodie, and the jacket worn on top now had this giant slashed cut across the arm, he was bleeding from it.

He entered the empty room quietly, only lit by the night sky behind him. The shattered glass from the busted window would be crunching under the tip of his shoe. And ripped pale curtains flowed in the wind like a ghostly veil. Yet there were no signs of another person in the house on first glance.

However he could quickly assume that someone had definitely been here before. Aaron stopped all movement noticing some of the floor feel different beneath his feet, something a bit sticky was peeling when he stepped onto it. A dried trail of blood lead him to a table that was coated red like it had been newly painted, the sight looked gruesome, yet there was no body to indicate that the person had died.

While now clutching his hurting arm, Aaron turned around in to find more horrifying evidence, towels and papers had been thrown around, smeared with red, as if he was in a surgery room. The young cop feared that he must have arrived too late, and the two victims had not survived their injuries by now.

Aside from the wind which was rushing through the first floor, slamming the closed doors against their own hinges, this side of house was empty. So he headed to the second floor. 

The place was truly all empty, no sign of a person existed anywhere on the second floor either. It all was so dark, so quiet. He believed that they might of have left by now, hopefully to somewhere safe.

In defeat, the short mans stance began to ease off, his tensed up shoulders gradually shrunk down. But right then, inside of the dark house, he noticed a small light shining through the cracks somewhere. 

Aron instantly snapped in alert, the lines on the cops forehead stacked in one point, his dark eyebrows arched straight up like feathers of angry bird. He moved in, sneakily, secretly.

A golden streak crossed the floor at an end of a hallway, Aaron looked up to where it would be coming from, and saw a hatch door in the ceiling with a shining square outline all around it. It wasn’t difficult to conclude what this meant – there was a room in the attic.

Aaron completely forgot about his glass cut arm when climbing up the steep steps, to then bravely burst through the hatch door before the two men could manage to notice him first and strike him in self defence first.

The hatch to the attic dropped to the wall with a thud, bright light came close to almost blinding the lurking cop. Yet nothing had attacked him yet.

As soon as he was upstairs Aaron became amazed at the secret hideout, he had no idea this even existed the first time he had snuck in here. But then again, Mingi previously had even told him that he had definitely heard something move above.

He came up quick, finding the room bright calm, the eerie silence made him wary to proceed, but not until he had fully climbed up the attic, he realized what had truly happened here.

The cop found two bodies laying down and facing one another like they were just calmly sleeping. The noise of the hatch opening should have woken them up by now, but both Kang and Kim laid there still. Stray bottles of medicine had rolled off onto the floor next to emptied, wet cups of water.

Aaron had to take step back in grief understanding what had ultimately happened to the two. These men had taken their own lives, before anything else could. And if Aaron could find them this easily, that proved that anyone else could probably do the same.

Aaron couldn’t blame anyone else, but himself for this. His sunken, red eyes dropped in shame, these people didn’t even deserve to die.

Defeated, he kneeled down to the boy with the broken leg, looking in between him and Dongho. Aaron slowly came to realize that in the end because Jonghyun couldn’t go to a hospital, since they were both being hunted, and with injuries like these gone untreated, the boy was surely going to die either way. So they had decided to just let it happen sooner.

Before his death, Jonghyun had become as thin as a child, sleeping bundled up in a warm blanket. Somehow, the guy reminded him of Mingi. Aside from age and height, they really didn’t look that much alike appearance wise up close, but the two of them had this same gloomy, tragic aura to them.

Upon seeing his so familiar face, Aaron subconsciously nodded to greet his old schoolmate, even though he barely even remembered this guy from his childhood at all.

This got Aaron thinking, if only had he not blurted out that he was somehow loosely related to one of the suspects even though they weren’t actually close back in the hometown police station, then the rookie would have not been hired for this job, and then his friend would still be alive too, it hurt too much to even think of all of those sweet what-ifs.

He then glanced at Dongho, who slept just as soundly as the other man. That man had been the only one who would be able to tell the young cop about who had been behind all of this, Aaron wanted to murder that bastard with his own hands. However, Dongho couldn’t tell him because he was gone too.

Aaron looked away the tragic sight of friends holding one another in death, instead he noticed Jonghyuns hand stretched in-between to hold Donghos, they both held something inside of it.

Aaron looked and his eyes instantly lit up – a flash drive sat gripped inside of their palms. It had to the evidence, the same one that the mobsters were after, the thing that everyone had died for.

Aaron hissed out loud in surprise unable to believe that the two men secretly had it all this time. Aaron could have helped the men by reporting the contents to the police in their place. If only they had waited a few hours more for Aaron to come to them, then they could have been saved.

The corners of his eyes faded to red in anger, and his fist clenched realizing he had failed someone once again by letting innocent people die for no reason. He reached to take the flash drive from Jonghyuns hands that still felt warm, which he didn’t even notice it at first.

His eyes were already set for something else of importance, beside them was left of what appeared to be an unfinished note, sitting right under his own gun placed on top.

The pair were probably in such a rush that they forgot about finishing it or even hiding it. Because the thunder was still loud outside, they must of been paranoid and mistaken the noises of the window breaking below as a sign that someone was coming, so they had taken the poison much sooner.

Aaron soon began to read it – the writer described a situation in which he told that the police was trying to frame them by killing another police officer and then staging them as the perpetrators. Aaron could tell this was talking about him.

If only Aaron had know what he was truly getting himself into, then he wouldn’t have agreed to any of this. Because these bad guys never meant to just cut him off so easy like that, Aaron was already doomed from the start, before he even got that false promotion. He remembered Mingi again, but he had to shake his head and continue reading.

The writer in sloppy handwriting told him how Kyulkyung, the person who was found dead, but was actually alive, was meant to make the evidence public to the entire country, but she had betrayed them and taken off with it instead.

Of course the unfinished note also spoke the name of the man behind all of this, a man who was high in position within the police, someone who even had recently appeared in the news for having an ambitious plan to get involved in the countries politics and the government scene.

A guy like that, he was an even worse cop than Aaron, the guy though to himself. Further reading proved his small suspicions that the evidence included in the small device contained proof of that man killing someone in cold blood. The note just kinda trailed off from there, the final words of the writer were forever left unheard, as he now laid dead next to his lover and best friend, still holding his hand.

The ex cop changed his plan about slaying that bastard like he had done with all other of those monsters who killed Mingi, instead he would expose him like Jonghyun and his friend had originally wanted. It was the only proper way to redeem himself.

Aaron took the gun that had originally been his own just in case. It looked so big in his small hands. Aarons physique had always been weak and frail, people would often push him around or not take him seriously. So the gun range practice is where Aaron had exceeded to at least be good at some form of self defence.

The vengeful man clicked his other spare magazine in, reloading the gun to full. He hoped that he would not have to use it again.


	29. Chapter 29

The buildings in Seoul city were built to last, even if a strong earthquake were to suddenly shake them up, they were not meant to cave in, let alone on a calm, breezeless day like that. 

The university Nayoung went to had organized a small event for her class, they gathered at a cinema for a new movie screening at the newly built local mall. To fill the seats to full, the other students even bought their own friends to tag along, some annoyingly enough even bought their girlfriends and boyfriends. 

Although Nayoung seemed like she was a social butterfly, she was actually close to just a very few of her classmates and preferred to keep her circle small. Choi Mingi was one of her closest of friends, even though the guy was an absolute nuisance. He was always annoying and way too hyper, but in a way that was his charm. The guy would brighten up the mood everywhere they went.

Thus the two friends decided to seat together at the cinema before going in. At the time they were both so excited to see the movie sequel that they didn’t even notice anything being wrong. The ceiling above would occasionally rain dust from above, Mingi even joked about it, saying how he was glad that it at least didn’t get into his cup of popcorn. 

The building windows of the building were another early sign, along side of a long glass corridor leading up to the screening room they were tilting all along the walls, and far above near the high ceiling it sounded like something was cracking and breaking. 

The first half of the movie passed quickly and everything seemed calm, the loud explosions and gunshots heard in the action film distracted the moviegoers from hearing all the real sounds happening in the background, perhaps that’s why the collapse seemed so sudden and out of place.

With no prior warning, suddenly there was an earthshaking sound louder than the movie itself, the walls rattled and split around them and the next second everything went black.

After some time, Nayoung gasped awake under the pile of rubble realizing she was still somehow alive. The last she had seen was the whole ceiling coming down on her, right then she had really though that it was all over for her. In that very moment when being so close to death, she couldn’t stop thinking about Kyulkyung who was waiting for her back at home, and how this would be so unfair to her. 

Nayoung opened her eyes wide to the dark. It was hard to move, even hard to breathe. Concrete dust filled the hallow space like an impenetrable fog. There were huge blocks of debris above her, but when turning her head she could see the light come through from the gaps somewhere, she could even hear faint voices out there too. 

Only after the initial wave of real pain in her body had ceased, Nayoung began to carefully crawl out, hoping not to nudge any debris in the way that would cause for the rest of the ceiling to crush her. She could feel sharp pain in her legs and spine, and by now was absolutely positive she had definitely raptured something, but right then her first thought was survival. 

Finally she reached the light stretching her face towards it, Nayoung somehow realized it was direct sunlight and stared out in awe and shock. An open hole gaped through the roof of the mall. 

Her face and hair was completely covered with soot, that mixed with trickling blood sourcing from her forehead, causing it to become mud like. 

Her eardrums suddenly popped back open and then her initial confusion passed over. She saw what had truly happened around her – limbs would hang reaching for the light from underneath the rocks, faint groans calling out for help. Nayoung went to look for anyone she could recognize. 

While crawling, Nayoung suddenly slid her knee on an unstable rock almost resulting in her falling into a deeper pit of debris. She looked down the dark hole in the ground that she had almost fallen into and it seemingly lead to the floor even further below, it was all dark there as if in a cave. But in that darkness she saw a pale figure of a motionless body laying down at the bottom, along with a whole row of theatre seats on top of it.

“Mingi?” Nayoung tried to remain calm when recognizing the clothing of her friend trapped down there. She instantly began trying to find a way to get down there to help him get out. 

The boy was unresponsive to his own name, he laid on his back flat, but his face couldn’t be clearly seen. A big piece of concrete had fallen on top of him, Nayoung did not know if it was pressing down on him or merely just hovering above his cheek, she hoped for the best.

She began to step down the unsafe shaft, using loose wire cords and stuck out pieces of rebar as things to stand on and grab before reaching the bottom. Nayoung had almost made her way down to him, before another dangerous grumble shook whatever was left of the ceiling.

In terror she flinched to look up at the light above, not knowing that that would be the last time she would see light until months later, when she woke up again for the first time inside of a hospital to a grand bill and an usable body that left her wondering what on earth had happened.

Beside her always sat loyal Kyulkyung, who had been there this whole time waiting for her to be awake again. She was told by Kyulkyung that there had been a building collapse and it was all over the news. The whole mall that had opened its doors just recently had gone down to the ground all out of nowhere.

There were many accusations against the building company that a lot of safety regulations had been overlooked to save time and cut back costs on building materials for the construction of the luxury city mall. The whole thing reeked of malpractice, yet the investigation lead by the state police came out inconclusive anyways. It was so obvious that someone had been paid off for that verdict.

The small compensations to the families of the survivors were paid out long after they had already died after never recovering.

When Nayoung had first woken up, she quickly found out number of survivors in that tragedy had been small and all her closest friends in there were all part of the death toll number. Yet she was relieved to hear that even at least one friend of hers, Mingi, had made it out somewhat alive.

Mingi had somehow regained consciousness sooner than her, miraculously after surviving a grave head injury that had left his skull caved in. He wasn’t able to walk or speak yet to ever visit her, but he did send her badly written cards. After months of bills, neither of them could even afford to buy new phones to send texts.

The same guy always bragged about how he had this really smart friend studying in the united states to become a great cop. Kwak Aaron, who was a natural born genius, smart enough to get into almost any school he wanted to in the states. However, after the accident, his friend abandoned all of it to be with the boy instead, Aaron half-assed his continued studies in Korea while working odd part-time jobs while failing almost all of his classes.

Of course Mingi didn’t include that part in any of his written cards though, because he felt guilty. Instead Kyulkyung had relayed that message after meeting him for a brief while herself right before he transferred to a different district hospital far away, one he could actually afford.

Nayoung kept a blanket Mingi said he didn’t need anymore as a present and a keepsake, and after she had slipped into a state of coma again, she never saw him again.

 

Pulled all the way up to his nose Jonghyun hugged a warm blanket he had borrowed from Kyulkyung, it smelled of a pretty woman’s perfume, giving him small comfort during a seemingly endless car ride.

With eyes aching for rest, Jonghyun blinked at the long road ahead, the boy was blinded with light coming in from the front of the window when he tried. Everything blurred behind the windshield and all he could see was pure white.

He look around, to the side and behind, everywhere the scene was the same – the car was alone racing straight in the middle of endless white void. Small glimmers of shine bounced off the sides of the car, Jonghyuns eyes couldn’t make out if what he was seeing was even real or not.

Then he blinked at the driver, Dongho held the wheel with one hand while the other was near his mouth biting the ring looking as worried as always, but that was up until Jonghyun first spoke.

“Dongho?” Jonghyun tried to arch his back straight, forgetting about his shoulder wound, yet strangely it didn’t hurt anymore.

“Yup?” Dongho answered casually, Jonghyun hadn’t heard his friend act this calm in ages. 

“Where are we going?” He asked the man who would rather look ahead at the nonexistent road than him.

The guy looked like had no clue where he was driving, however he was still looking out for any road signs even when there was nothing there. It was strange.

“Uhh, we are running away. Remember?” Dongho spoke to Jonghyun like he was an idiot.

“I don’t understand,” Jonghyun looked ahead at the point that Dongho was so focused at far ahead, trying to see the same thing the other man saw, yet he saw nothing, but the same bright white light. It was sometimes pulsating, like it was pulling them in, but the car could never quite catch up to it.

The other man didn’t respond to his boyfriend anymore, he just kept looking ahead with the same static expression.

Soon, Jonghyun noticed something else that was not right, this time his breathing was different. It felt clear, like he was standing on a mountain peak, as if his lungs had healed. He swore he could even taste the air around him – it tasted sweet.

Those repeating weak and faint breaths attracted Dongho, who like every other time instantly worried for his health. Jonghyun was always pale, his lips were colorless and peeling dry.

“Is everything okay?” Dongho reached his hand to feel the boys cheek, then his forehead looking for symptoms of fever. Before he could even feel anything Jonghyun shook his head to get away.

He didn’t feel bad, but this didn’t feel right either, Jonghyun couldn’t describe it in full. Either way, he didn’t want to scare the finicky man beside him.

“I feel fine Dongho, just a bit sleepy that’s all.” Jonghyun spoke, unsure what was happening to him or around him. Jonghyun exhaled again, it was a long exhale that emptied his whole lungs. He couldn’t get over it how good it felt to finally be able to breathe.

Worried for his boyfriend, Kang shifted the car into another gear, and apologized for speeding to the other. It didn’t matter, because it did not look like they were on an actual road to anywhere real anyways.

“Jonghyun, can you look at me for a sec.” Dongho ordered in the most gentle voice he could put on. Like a misbehaving child, Jonghyun outright refused to give Dongho anything to be stressed about.

“Don’t worry about me, stop worrying so much.” The tall boy was exhausted when speaking, he just wanted to sleep, his head tilted to the side and he wanted to be gone. 

“Are you sure?” Dongho couldn’t stop worrying now, his high voice woke the man right back up, “How does your leg feel, is it uncomfortable?” 

Kang couldn’t afford to take a single glance away from the road and into the cars footpace where Jonghyuns leg was. Instead Jonghyun looked at it for himself, he remembered it once being very swollen and pink, bulging out from being tucked warmly in-between soft cloth and two pieces of plank that kept the leg straight.

To his surprise, his current leg stood perfectly in place without any bandage or bruise the way it had been before. It was like Jonghyuns skin and bone had just fused overnight and it just did not make any sense.

He shot his jaw to his shoulder, unable to find any scar there either, his skin was pale and untouched. Disoriented Jonghyun looked around himself further, letting his blanket fall to his lap in grim realization that none of this was actually real.

It was all a hallucination, a projection that his brain had constructed because of those pills he had taken before ending his life. Jonghyun was left wondering what exactly did he take to end up in a strange dream like this.

He was interrupted from his sudden realization when the Dongho suddenly gasped at something beside him, the car began to lose its speed. Jonghyun stared straight ahead to see what the other man had seen.

The car came to a slow halt only meters away from hitting something, someone. Two figures stood on the road ahead of them, male and a woman.

Jonghyun leaned forwards and winced just as hard to see as Dongho did, he didn’t recognize neither of them. Their faces were static, they looked rather sad.

Confused, Dongho started to slowly angle his car to drive around the strange pair that still hadn’t moved, only following the driver and the passenger with their eyes alone.

In the last second before Dongho drove off scared, Jonghyun wanted to mention how that woman looked very similar to the one seen in the video recordings where Kyulkyung was on the run. But as he was turning to his boyfriend again to say it, he realized that the man he was in love with, sitting beside him wasn’t real either. None of this was.

All of this was some pretty fantasy, pictures that Jonghyuns mind was trying to conjure in his last moments before death. Jonghyun would never know what any of these thoughts random meant.

He looked outside once more and the scenery was different, the sky was now a vivid mess of odd colors, purple, red, yellow and green. Shapes and colors blended over one another burning away into the distance. At the end of that long, lonely road was still nothing and by now both men in the car knew that so well.

 

Aarons tired eyes carefully glanced over many other rows of computers, he sat at a one such computer himself, hanging out inside of an unpopulated computer café, all while trying to remain unnoticed as much as possible. And luckily, everyone else were either busy playing computer games or typing up emails – no one had a clue what Aaron was doing.

The young male had around twenty or more pages open in his browser at once, each of them flashing a loading icon as he clicked and clicked on each one to open them all at once. He had converted the files to send out the evidence in an email attachment to anonymously tip off news sites all at once.

Not only that, but he began to post the same thing on various message boards, spreading it around in hopes that it would be harder to cover up or stop the spread of the content. The pictures were graphic so they were bound to gain attention from shocked citizens any second now.

Aaron literally watched the seconds pass on the clock of his computer after posting many times. He was anxious from waiting, sweat glazing his forehead. Within a minute, emails started coming back asking for more intel.

He lifted his eyes from the monitor and saw people start to talk around him inside of the internet café itself. Students were pushing their chairs together to look at the same screen with the newly uploaded pictures and Aron could hear the clicking of the computer mouse amplify around him.

For him this moment was his end of the line. He had fulfilled his promise to redeem himself and avenge the lives of the two wrongfully accused men. From here there was nothing left for him to do.

The ex cop found comfort in his own thoughts, cracking a small, but still pained smile of relief. It was over, it was all over. And with that jerk cop who had caused all of this now having been exposed, Aarons friend could now probably rest in peace too.

Pleased with his success, the man shut off his computer and stood from his seat to ditch the place before anyone had noticed him, the flash drive tucked away in his pocket for safe keeping. Hiding his hurting arm curled to his chest from being seen.

He still had some time to go around before he would be arrested and taken into custody for his contributions to the conspiracy. Aaron knew where that bastard cop was staying, in some high ruse office in a nearby district minutes away.

The failed cop figured that if he was going to jail either way, he might as well take his revenge on that bastard for Mingis death. Aaron felt the gun hidden inside of his jacket, done feeling fear of using it again.

He pulled out his last bucks to pay for using the computer and left to exit through the door, rainfall knocking the glass from the other side already waiting for him. Yet as soon as he had pressed his thumb around the door handle, his thought stopped.

A sudden thought had passed his head, remembering how Jonghyun had ended up and how his motionless hands still felt warm to touch even though he was gone. Aaron gripped the door handle harder in his grip, the blood from his jacket would seem through and by this point become obvious to the other customers.

He couldn’t stop thinking about those warm hands the boy had, it must have been a few hours before Aaron had found him like that. Could it perhaps mean that there was a chance that Jonghyun was still alive, Aaron doubted.

The rookie didn’t have enough time to go back to the house and check if his suspicion was only hopeful thinking or not, and then return to revenge against that crooked cop. He was stuck on what to do, Aaron had to think what would his friend choose in this kind of situation.

Then after finally making his final decision, the door became open to the wind and the rain that raged outside, his shoulder disappeared behind the doorframe and then the same door became quiet and shut.

 

Meanwhile, in an entirely different part of the city, erratic breaths would be escaping from the still alive lungs of Kyulkyung as she struggled against her new captors. She barely walked, staggered as one of the suited up body guards dragged her forwards even when she could barely walk.

The bastards had knocked her out before she could even snatch her gun back, well at least it was worth a try. Now she was left a bit roughened up, a bruised lip, bleeding forehead and a bad shoulder, but she was still not done kicking. Her eyes came into focus to become aware of the long hallway of the same police station building she had been on before ahead.

Just as she had started thinking of the ways the old guy was going to try to get rid of her this time, suddenly she heard frantic footsteps sound from the same floor – a lot of them. The body guard froze hearing them too, something was not right.

The next second a bunch of policemen rounded the corner from outside the elevator area to run past her, brushing shoulders with her in hurry. The police was heading the way Kyulkyung had came, the office of the high police official.

The police was already way past the bodyguard, but the guy kept confused still, unsure what to do in this situation – the boss was getting arrested.

Kyulkyung reacted quick, brute forcing her way from under the guys shoulder to get to his gun instead. She succeeded, flipping herself around to point at him. Defeated, the man did not even try to fight back for his gun. Instead, he slowly began to raise his hands and that’s when the girl started to flee for her life, before more cops could show up. She walked backwards with her hand still stretched to point to the bodyguard.

As soon as she ran to the next hallway to take the elevator down, more cops conveniently popped out to catch her with a gun in hand. What came next happened so fast, there were so many voices yelling, all pointing their guns at her to drop her weapon.

Kyulkyung was surrounded, with no way out of this unless she had a death wish. She became confused, wide eyed at the crowd. 

Slowly she put it to the floor and as soon as she became disarmed, cops came to hold her down to the floor in order to cuff her. Even on the ground level, she continued to stare with the same big eyed, shocked look at the feet of the still yelling cops who were actively calling this in to their police radios. It was all over.


	30. Chapter 30

A steady hand wrote on paper scribbling its full name right next to the current date. The number was big, the month different. A lot of time had passed since the conviction of that crooked cop, at least all of it was in the past by now.

The writer of the said paper supposed that the time must be going by even more quickly for those around here who have been locked behind bars. After finishing writing his application, he looked ahead down a long hallway, closed off with a barred gate that would bring him closer to the prisoners inside this jail.

The place had this stuffy, musky smell that became overwhelming combined with the smell of chemical solution meaning to keep the halls clean. Beside the male, someone had been eagerly mopping the floor wet and causing for that smell to spread.

A prison guard standing nearby was curiously eyeing the new visitor who had showed up wearing some flashy brand clothing, awaiting in his chair with his legs crossed as if he was a king. Seriously, who did this guy think he is coming to a prison dressed like he was going to a fashion show.

Hwang Minhyun casually sat at a desk filling out a paper sheet before finishing applying as a visitor, waiting to be called out so he could be bought into the actual visitor room. 

While patiently waiting his eyes wandered to the person mopping the floors. The tall model noticed a prison uniform clad male prisoner, probably volunteering for cleaning duty, his broom anxiously inched closer and closer to the spot under the table where Minhyun kept his feet.

The prisoner wore a scary looking scar across his arm, yet aside from that, he didn’t really look like one of those prison though guys from the movies. The male looked fairly young to be locked up in here like this. He was clean shaven and had a nice profile too.

Minhyun found interest in him, and thus his curious cat stare made the prisoner took notice, causing him to nervously jolt in place once seeing the face of the rookie model-actor, as if he somehow knew him.

The tallest tilted his head to the side, “Have we met before?” The nervous prisoner turned his mop and anxiously stared at the ground instead, to pretend he had not heard Hwang. But the guys elbows had already left the table, he leaned back in the seat to stretch his neck tall and call the prisoner from afar.

“Hey, when do you get out?” Minhyun teased, finding the nervous male cute, despite that he was a prisoner and all.

Right then Hwang had heard the call to enter the visitors room that had been set up for him. He got up and followed a hallway behind a barred door which lead him inside a bright room without windows, that had been split in the middle by a big pane of glass.

After a small waiting time, his boredom finally ended as soon as a door on the other side of the glass wall of separation came open with a female prisoner emerging to sit behind the said glass. Kyulkyungs hair had grown even longer, the scar on her forehead was healing poorly and her nails were left short and cracked.

For some reason she looked so gloomy today when seeing him, well at least aside from being gloomy in general about being locked up in a prison. Minhyun was kinda hoping she would at least act happy to see him, but she gave him a mean frown as a greeting.

But this time it was different, Kyulkyung was obviously troubled about something else and Hwang was sensitive to feel things like these. It made him feel weirdly tingly, as if his gut feeling was trying to tell him that something was wrong already.

Her sour look changed as soon as she started to speak to him, “What brings you to here, Hwang?” She still answered proud, her smirk just as cunning as a fox. Minhyun smiled back finding a small laugh in how the situation had turned out.

To Kyulkyung this guy was a traitor, someone who had tried to sabotage her whole plan, yet now she was on that side of the glass and he was on the other, there was nothing she could do about it anymore and the bastard had gotten off scot-free. It didn’t even really matter, as in the end, both of them had failed one more than the other. Instead, this time the girl just decided to greet him like an old friend.

“Just wanted to know how you are holding up these days.” He sulked, “Looks awfully lonely in this place, you know?” Hwang started to look and even turn around a bit, rubbing his elbows in pretend fear. As those scary looking female guards did not look friendly one bit.

“So you come to laugh at me, huh?” Kyulkyungs guess made Hwang clap his hands and burst into a laugh, judging by that reaction she had been spot on.

“Well, heh.” Minhyun wiped his nose after he was done with his stupid cackling. During that time Kyulkyung used her chance to tease him right back about something too, “So how is your leg?”

The man looked a bit taken aback, but then waved his wrists to excuse his past injury, “Ah! Don’t mention it.” He laughed it off.

His leg had mostly healed, he hoped it wouldn’t leave a nasty mark afterwards, as it had a chance to in a way impact his modelling and acting careers, figuring that a bullet scar would probably rise a lot of questions. Meaning that he would probably have to try to remember the same made up, bullshit story he had once told the first response team after getting shot.

Minhyun still cursed the idiotic bastard who had made him shoot himself that day, but knowing that it had been done in an act of self defence, the tall actor had no choice, but to play along and pretend that it was somehow self inflicted.

“I see you’ve got your fair share of bruises too?” He tapped the glass at the same height where the glistening scar on Kyulkyungs forehead had formed, it was in the shape of a lightning bolt. He found it pretty funny.

The woman pretended to laugh along, until stopping to flash her shark teeth at the boy who then immediately went quiet and ashamed about his remark.

The woman became quiet and her face made a small sad expression, “Tell me, are Kang and Kim doing okay?”

The tall man suddenly shot his glance back up from the desk like he was jealous of them in some weird way, “Why should I know?” He sighed once, and soon began to spill anyways, “The two bastards ended up together, as in together-together. Can you even believe it?”

Kyulkyung didn’t even flinch, for her it was kind of expected ever since she had even first met the two. Jonghyun was so very much in love with his oblivious best friend that the whole time it was sad to even look at.

Kyulkyung made the dumbass realize that was not her intended question, “Are they both in good health?” As far as she knew, the two men had ultimately survived the incident.

Minhyun became embarrassed, yet continued to act proud, “I dunno! Just request to call them or something, or whatever you do in prison.”

Hwang shuddered imagining himself staying in here for longer than a minute himself. He didn’t want to admit it, but he kinda felt bad for Kyulkyung who was going to stay here for quite a while.

A grim silence ensued after the failed interaction, Minhyun then quickly slouched over to rest his elbows on the desk, whispering in a very quiet, serious voice, “You know that crooked cop, politician guy, right?” 

He looked at the woman, but saw no change in her face upon the mention of that mans name, not even an eyelash on her face had moved. 

Minhyun tinned and then puckered his lips to continue, “Heard he got locked up for a very, very long time. He was found guilty of bunch of other stuff too, like helping rich CEOs and government officials cover up their crimes.” He twitched his nostrils at the end of his silent rant.

Somehow Kyulkyung wasn’t too impressed by it, “I don’t really care at this point. But that’s a relief I guess.” Minhyun saw her expressions quickly turn to sad. He began to worry.

“I think Nayoung would be so disappointed in me.” She spoke from the bottom of her heart, Minhyun was weirdly surprised by such a random confession.

“You did what you had to do to survive!” Minhyun tried to back up her choices, “I would have done the same in your place too.”

“It wasn’t like by avenging her you could ever bring her back.” Minhyuns angry sentence would fade out near the end once realizing that it had been insensitive of him. He apologized right after.

The two ended up having another small conversation about just very mundane things, as there was not much to talk about from the inside of a prison. Hwang was quite disappointed with the lack of fun stories she could have had about it.

Just as he was about to say his goodbyes and limp his leg out the visitors room, the prisoner stopped him to make a quick request.

“Hey, leave Nayoung some flowers from me will you?” She even smiled a little, so Minhyun could never turn down a request like that. 

“Definitely, I will.” He promised with a boastful smirk, adding a wink at the end.

The man gradually walked back the long hallway the same way he had came before, his bad leg still needed some work, but few more days and he was sure he could be back up and running again.

Speaking of running, one of the prison guards he had met earlier was now out of position and suddenly running past him, almost knocking the poor guy over as he had failed to dodge it in time. He saw even more guards flood from the same end of hallway ahead, they all held radios active in their hand and so Minhyun got to overhear a bit if what was said.

The guards were all speaking in some kind of a cop code unknown to him, something about a detainee taking a gun off a guard. Minhyun turned his head back the way the visitors room was, dreading to understand.

Kyulkyung had just now attacked a prison guard in order to take their gun – but why would she, the woman had never voiced any thoughts of wanting to escape from here, Minhyun recalled to himself.

That’s when he flinched his head down when hearing a loud gunshot, and then a few more echo from the far hall. In grief Minhyun had realized that her plan wasn’t escape, she didn’t want that, because as long as her girlfriend Nayoung had died, all of her plans had ultimately failed anyways and nothing else would matter.

 

The end of the chase as they themselves would call it – after trying to escape from the mess the two men, Dongho and Jonghyun, were now once again free, just staring out their new lives together.

The days had become long and bright again, and the dark of the winter had been long defeated. It had been months already, the late spring had passed over quickly and now the street parks of Seoul were now dressed in pretty green. Flowerbeds under the towers of apartments were in full bloom attracting clusters of butterflies playfully dancing from petal to petal outside.

The warm light of the morning sun was warming up Jonghyuns naked skin as he slept, only his legs had been wrapped under soft white sheet. It felt so nice just laying down like that, he didn’t even want to wake up today.

The man suddenly became more aware once feeling wet, gross kisses trying to ruin his sleep. He woke up to whine at the culprit Dongho who had been bullying him awake by teasingly kissing up his arms and face like a needy puppy.

“Ah, its too early. Leave me alone!” Jonghyun groaned turning his body away to the side where his friend could not reach him. 

Upon being shown a cold shoulder, Dongho went and snuggled the mean guy from the back out of spite, his arm reaching tight around the body like a hook. That seemed to be Jonghyuns last straw, as he sat up in bed to judge the man who had forced him to become awake, giving him an ominous look.

Dongho smiled back at him with the widest and the happiest smile ever, it was a super genuine one, because nothing could make the guy more happy than this. Just a few months ago, Jonghyun could have wished to ever see that pretty childhood smile only in his dreams.

Their bed was positioned right by the window, so during these lazy past days while Dongho was on a leave from his job and Jonghyun was preparing for his college entrance exam, the hot summer rays of sun had been gradually tanning them both.

Jonghyun was no longer so sickly pale, and by now had regained his pretty bronze complexion he once had before. Although he could still not beat Dongho on that, when the guy had spawned some sweet tan lines of his own already.

His tan would cut off on his legs only as high as his house socks would usually go, and from his hips, as far as his loose gym shorts would usually droop down. His strong arms were fully glazed all excluding a thin pale line circling his ring finger.

Dongho grabbed his engagement ring from the nightstand and put it back on in its rightful place, making sure that Jonghyun was always remembering to wear his too, because boy did these things actually cost money.

In preparation of getting up, Jonghyun stretched his shoulders and swung his worst one back into its place for the day. In fact, day by day he could feel less and less discomfort in it, at least. Yet his leg was still another story – everyday he had to put on his own cast, and even then he could not walk without a crutches. He still had many weeks to go before walking.

When his legs were off the side of bed, Dongho would already wait to help put his still broken leg into this ugly looking, grey aircast boot. Putting this thing on had become their morning ritual together. 

Dongho clipped his foot in for him, stopping to look up and give the other man another smile in the middle of doing so. Every week, he would also accompany Jonghyun by bringing him in to his physical therapies just the same.

Even when their new life was filled with the constant avalanche of bills and annoying hospital visits for Jonghyun, this was certainly still better than being dead. The two men were glad and lucky to not have died on that day, after being saved by someone.

Dongho woke up to find himself in a hospital with the worst headache ever, and upon discovering himself undressed, in a hospital bed while hooked up to an IV. He immediately began freaking out and crying out to the nurses to not touch him and leave him alone, once realizing he had not died as planned, believing that Jonghyun had already died without him. 

But it was far too late to trash in protest, because his body had already been flushed out of the harmful drugs, which the doctors explained to him, were not some one-way-ticket-to-paradise poison, but just merely sleeping pills made of milder ingredients meant to prevent a death by overdose. 

Regardless, his body was still harmed by its effects, when awake the room was spinning and when asleep demons would chase after him in his dreams that seemed so vivid, he would mistake them for reality. But at least he had only slept through everything that had happened and survived, the doctors told him.

The man began to calm, as this meant to Jonghyun must have been alive too. At the time Dongho was too dazed and nauseous to ask what exactly had happened. Till then, he was only told that they were now all safe and the man after them was already put behind bars. It didn’t sound real, it was too good to be true. 

Yet relieved, Dongho then fell dead asleep in his hospital bed and didn’t wake back up until whole two days later. It took way longer for Jonghyun, but he lived.

While helping Jonghyun out with putting on that leg cast, the cheeky guy told him that whatever he might do, he shall not think about the itch behind his cast. Flustered, Jonghyun turned his cheek to face away.

“So, you ready to head outside yet?” The shortest wagged his imaginary tail, excited to go outside with the other man. Seeing it as his chance to for the first time in ages actually treat his friend out for a proper date or something.

“No, not really.” Jonghyun had to let the other down. After buying himself a new gaming console, Jonghyun would much rather enjoy catching up with unfinished games, than to suffer the heat stroke sourcing from the inside of his cast once outdoors.

Dongho hopped back on the beds edge next to Jonghyun all grumpy and pouty still wanting full attention from the other. Gosh, he wasn’t even this clingy with his ex, Jonghyun wanted to groan.

In these cases, all Jonghyun had to do to calm him, was to simply hold the other mans warm hand, their fingers locked together. The two sat on the edge of the bed like that in odd silence making the moment feel timeless. Both of them were content.

Gradually, while it was all silent, their heads turned to face one another and tips of their noses began almost touching together from closeness. It wasn’t late before Dongho had the idea to kiss the other, while arching his head which was out of reach. Jonghyun joined him on the idea and while they still held hands, they met a slow kiss.

The grip of Jonghyuns fingers pulled tighter around the other mans hand when their exchange started to gradually grow more. The two would part for just split second intervals to regain their breath, only to return back to where they were, pressing and folding their lips on top of one anothers.

Just sitting facing sideways wouldn’t do anymore, Dongho slowly fell himself backwards into the bed to pull Jonghyun on top of him, all while taking his gigantic leg cast into account. 

In that small time, Jonghyun had the time to look and adore the other man, who now laid down with his eyes fluttered shut and his mouth just slightly parted to pull in big breaths. The cretin was still handsome, absolutely stunning.

The lack of continued kissing made the shortest wake from his irrupted state of bliss, his eyes immediately searching for where had his boyfriend gone. The guy was right there, staring at him with heart shaped sparkles in his eyes, while somehow still looking like a complete idiot at the same time.

For some damn reason, it always made Dongho totally flushed with red whenever his boyfriend looked at him like that – staring as if he was something amazing.

Dongho was still insecure. He had been so apologetic to Jonghyun, so sorry that he had once stopped trusting his best friend when blinded by his love for another, who didn’t even love him back, all while the person who had actually truly loved him had always been beside him.

Whatever he could do to make up for it, whenever he could shower Jonghyun with the love that he deserved, Dongho would work hard day and night to undo those misdeeds.

Jonghyun cut their sweet moment to chuckle, laughing at how red his friend had become. “Hey, what’s so funny right now, you punk?” Dongho barked in a high pitched voice.

Jonghyun dropped himself down to lay his ear on top of his boyfriends tattooed chest, hugging him. “It’s nothin’!” He teased the cute big man.

Dongho recognized the tight hug, this is how they usually slept together these days, the reason for that being the fact that Jonghyun had nothing else better to hold onto in his sleep. Usually Kang loved hugs, but the bastard would practically smother him in middle of the night whenever he started to subconsciously squeeze.

He decided to whine about it, “Your you still need that stupid bear, don’t you?” The tall boy shook his head against his friends chest, “Nah, not really. I have you now.” Right after, Jonghyun did a small cheer and his laugh sounded a little weird.

“You know what, its funny you say that.” Dongho started to sweat from being guilty, “I actually gave that damn thing to you.” He finally decided to admit it, after all that.

Jonghyun raised his head to look at his boyfriend, only resting his chin on the chest of the other, “Huh? Since when?”

“I was the one who left it there for you at the hospital.” Dongho explained, his mouth forming into a wavy line while he chewed on something inside of his mouth, his face becoming uncertain. 

“For some reason Kyulkyung had called me that day claiming you were dead, so I ran to make sure you weren’t.” The man spoke in a slightly deepened voice. They never really bought that woman up anymore in their conversations, this was their first time since everything that had happened.

Jonghyun began to sit up, hiding his nose behind a row of nervous, crooked fingers while his eyes travelled east, “She lied about me dying? Why would she do that?”

“Maybe to mock us?” Dongho jumped his shoulders and then sat up straight as well. 

However, Jonghyun felt differently, “Maybe because she felt bad for me, since she had caused for you to hate me so much back then? That night I had no one by my side and doctors predicted I wouldn’t even live through it.”

After Jonghyun had put it like that, Dongho could see how his version made a lot of sense, he lowered his head. “I am sorry.” Dongho spoke. 

“You don’t have to say it so much, you know that right?” Jonghyun had never hated Dongho for it.

“But I don’t feel like a good person by not saying anything at all.” Dongho voiced his concern to the other, who in return just laughed at him, “Just say that you love me.”

“Ah.” Donghos eyes started to frantically blink, he had to turn away before saying such a thing out loud, “I um, I love you.” 

Kang spoke in a quiet and nervous voice, like a kid confessing his love for the first time. Jonghyun always found it so hilarious whenever Dongho would turn from being blunt and confident, to being a shy and blushing mess so easily.

Without even looking back at his boyfriend, Dongho already predicted that he was being judged for getting flustered so easily, and in retaliation decided to voice some strong opinion to make Jonghyun regret his laughs.

He stared at him very closely, “There’s one thing I don’t love about you!” Jonghyuns eyes became big and insecure, “And that is?” He asked for the man to continue.

The tallest scrolled his eyeballs down to witness Donghos fingers pinch the ends of his long bangs that were draping over Jonghyuns sunken eyes, at this point the hair was almost down past his nose.

Every time Dongho wanted to kiss him, he had to sweep them out of the way as if he was opening a curtain. The guy really hated when that shit kept jabbing him into the eyes.

The next second, Jonghyun laughed like crazy and Dongho joined in quickly. They made a promise to go out tomorrow together and get the man a proper haircut, but for today neither of them wanted to leave the bed yet, where they would hug all day long until it was time for lunch already. But little did they know, that tomorrow they would end up doing just the same.

 

Almost exactly around three years ago was when Dongho had met the most beautiful girl that he had ever laid his eyes on. The girl who would then later become his girlfriend and even at one point his fiancé – Kyulkyung.

The club music was thumping loud in the background, the stage strobe lights were all going so crazy it was making the drunk people on the dance floor even more dizzy. With that, drinks were occasionally spilled, but even so that dancing and laughter never seemed to cease.

There was a party happening near the bar, it was someone’s birthday. Dongho had no idea who’s, but he still came here to just have some fun and possibly even try to hook up with someone, forcing his friend Jonghyun to tag along and play his wingman for tonight. 

Yet it was no luck so far just as always for Kang. Until then, the only entertainment they got for being here was by drinking. 

The two friends sat at a lone table and chatted with the birthday crowd, even though they both really sucked at socializing, especially Dongho who had already turned tipsy after only half a glass.

At one point, Dongho looked back in the crowd and thought he had seen a girl looking straight at him. She was sitting at a bar table far off, talking to her friends, biting a cocktail straw in her mouth while supposedly checking out Dongho from afar.

Kang dropped his jaw. She was absolutely drop dead gorgeous, petite and almost angelic, yet that endless stare of hers looked so sly and devious for some reason. Dongho felt lost in both space and time just looking at the stranger, he had even lost his breath. 

In that moment, their eyes had even met, the woman didn’t instantly turn away. Kyulkyung was confident, gazing straight at him for a long minute.

Dongho turned back to announce this to his bestie, “Dude, that pretty girl is totally digging me!” He almost squealed to the other, who had to look over his shoulder to confirm for himself.

Jonghyuns gaze directed at her had instantly made her turn away uninterested. However Dongho was right, she was really pretty, and Jonghyun could see what his friend saw in a woman like that.

The tallest watched as his friend would go back to staring at the unknown woman in amazement, but Jonghyun couldn’t stop staring at him instead. 

Right then the tall man felt so lonely, even with people and drinking, all he could think of tonight was only Dongho. All while the guy himself was busy with being trapped in own little world, and didn’t even spare a second look back at Jonghyun, who wanted him so bad. In Donghos mind, there was simply no room for someone like Jonghyun.

As soon as Dongho looked back, Jonghyun made his face bright again, but only because his friend looked happy in the first place. 

“Should I try and approach her to get her number?” Dongho became so jittery just thinking about it.

It was unnecessary for Kang to feel insecure about himself, Jonghyun knew he was already the best. “Yeah, dude! If you like her then you should go up and try to talk to her!” Jonghyun encouraged his friend to just go for it.

The shortest looked back at her again and she responded with a glance too, hiding a cute giggle behind her hand. After that the two men had to briefly become occupied to join a birthday cheer, but Dongho promised to return to ask her out later.

Right before getting up and dissolving into the crowd, for some reason Jonghyun looked back once more to look at the mysterious woman for one last time, as she stared at them through the gaps of the crowd.

For some reason he couldn’t stop feeling uneasy in the presence of that woman.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> !!! hey guys so its finally over !!!  
> actually thought about writing this waay sooner in 2017, (but then i was like lets write some mermaid au's today!) i had no clue if anyone would ever read angsty murder mystery type stories,, so if you liked this or maybe even want to see more of this genre in the future let me know in the comments or yell at me via curiouscat.me/fishdongho !
> 
> thank u for reading thus far!! luv u!


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